Decision time (again)

Reading some more studies, it seems like large tumor volume is an independent factor in chance of BCR in some studies. Since husband's tumor was 60% of prostate - which is a very large amount - I'm thinking he should probably do ART. But since the prostate was quite small (15 g), maybe the tumor volume isn't so big (as a percentage of a smaller total). Then again, a smaller prostate also seems to be a bad prognostic factor.

My head is swimming with studies, percentages, statistics....guess it's time to find a good medical oncologist specializing in PC.

acsd,

I'm another wife chiming in. I haven't checked in to this forum for a few months (thank goodness that means my husband has continued to do well on Zytiga).

But I just wanted to mention that we go to the University of Colorado and we feel that is one of the best decisions we have made in this whole cancer journey. It's a 3-hour drive one way for us but worth every mile.

Our medical oncologist is Dr. Thomas Flaig and we just love him. If you have any questions about UCH that I can answer, feel free to ask.

Marilyn

I sure will be thinking about you. My husband was diagnosed two years ago and it was a complete shock. He had been getting checkups twice a year for a very long time since he has had quite a few family members die of prostate cancer. And Marshall mentioned to all of his various doctors over and over and over how tired he was feeling and his ED problems, etc., and 4 separate doctors all said "Oh, you are just getting old." Especially his regular doctor -- the VA doctor. So we feel VERY betrayed by the medical community because after all those checkups and him begging doctors to look further into his symptoms, no one would take him seriously, so by the time he was diagnosed it was Stage 4 and had spread throughout the bones.

But we can't go back in time, so we deal with what we've got. Marshall gets a perverse pleasure now in continuing to see his VA doctor for basic checkups just to make the man look him in the eyes (which the doctor has a very hard time doing).

When we go to UCH, we feel enveloped in caring people the minute we pull up to the free valet parking area. We get the same warm feeling when we enter the hospital and go to the various appointments, from the lab to radiology to urology to Dr. Flaig's office. Another thing we like is that we get test results VERY quickly. Most of the time, I can see the test results on my iPad (through the hospital's Health Connection personal page) before we even get in to see Dr. Flaig. I see so many posts both here and on YANA and other forums where men don't get their test results for weeks and sometimes have to beg for them. We would be nut cases if we had to wait that long.

Anyway, sorry to write a book. Even though I don't come here as often as I used to now that Marshall is riding the Zytiga so well, this site is like going to UCH -- such a good feeling of caring and information.

We think about all of you and you are all in our daily prayers.

Bill,

Thank you so much. Marshall has an appointment with Dr. Gonzalez and it's coming up in about to weeks. He will see the VSO then. We actually have all of the VA medical records.

The day Marshall was diagnosed we were in such disbelief that the minute we left the hospital we went straight to the VA and demanded all the records. When we told them about the cancer diagnosis, the doctor's nurse (or secretary, whatever she is) personally made sure we got it all. We were expecting a fight, but we had the whole huge stack of records in under an hour.

Thank you so much for the message and the advice. We GREATLY appreciate it.

Marilyn