Scheduled for open radical prostatectamy

Gunner,

I laughed when I remembered that story. Good news? I'm here to laugh about it. Bad news? Not much, they never knew what was going on.

And anyone who owns Depends stock? You guys should be sending yearly thank-you cards!!

Hope everything is uneventful for you.

All the best gunner! Hope you have the easiest of recoveries.

Angie,

My DX was Oct 2013, gleaon9, Doc thought it was contained to the prostate but it isn't.

My thoughts on taking it out are get a second opinion from a Urologist who is also an Oncologist.

My personal opinion is get that sucker taken out. That will remove a good amount of the cancer. A drawback is that physically close intimate times will likely be on hold. But hey, he has cancer that may take his life. So just Love him whatever happens, my wife and I became much closer with the cancer.

God bless!

You and your husand seem to have a good understanding of the trrade-offs.

With surgery you overcome the psychological battle of not doing the surgery knowing that you could have taken it out. You also prevent the prostate from forming any secondary mets that might further spread outside the prostate.

If he is only 47 and in reasonably good shape, he should tolerate the surgery well, do his Kegel exercises afterwards, and deal with an temporary incontinence or Erectile Dysfunction.

The flip side is he will likely eventually have to radiate what has already escaped the prostate and deal with another set of side effects.

There are merits to both sides of the discussion.

Taking hormonal therapy is something the radiaiton oncologists like since it shrinks the prostate and the mets over time, leaving less to zap. Not sure the urologists/surgeons necessarily want a smaller target to excise.

Before taking action, do get second opinions from a non-affiliated urologist/surgeon, from a radiaiton oncologist and from a medical oncologist who specializes in prostate cancer. The latter will be the least baised as surgeons usually prefer surgery and radio oncos usually prefer radiaiton but the medical onco has no vested iterest in either.

Keep gunning back against the cancer, Gunner

LupronJim

LupronJim - Many thanks for your reply. I have been reading these forums for quite a while and have seen many of your posts. Although you are a bit older than my husband (he is 53) your case seems similar in many ways. I think your posts were the first place I saw the term oligometastatic and recently in the doctors notes on my husband's case he was described as being oligometastatic. The bone scan results are not clear of course, and the radiologist writes with vague descriptions. (Another item on the 'discuss with oncologist' list for our next monthly meeting). I love the line in your signature about treating with curative intent and not just palliative. I have added lots of new words to my vocabulary since his diagnosis including palliative and oligometastatic. I do realize that the disease acts differently in each person, but I have to say that without the internet I would have felt so alone. This forum in particular is very comforting in that I have learned there are many others facing these same decisions. Not that I would wish anyone else to be in the same boat. I know we have time before making the decision to research and seek 2nd opinions. What I have heard so far about having the surgery is that it is really important to find a surgeon with lots of experience. Has your oncologist mentioned 'treating the primary tumor' in your case? Sorry to be nosy. Husband's oncologist is always a bit cagey about what treatments might come next - and I understand that they have to be to see how it is all going.
Thanks again

Angie,
In my case my mets were resolved from the hormone and chemo treatments. I had a raging misbehaving prostate and lymph node that didn't seem to respond like the other areas. I think that with a Gleason 9 you can have aggressive cancer that doesn't behave like the more common adinocarcenoma. This aggressive form can be harder to contain and to stabilize. My docs believe this is what I had going on so we elected to remove the primary source.
I was also defined as oligometastatic. We just kept knocking it back until surgery became an option.
I know what you mean about the doctors. They know about the possibilities and various treatments. I do think they need to make decisions based on an overall plan, then be nimble enough to adjust based on current results of labs, scans, biopsies, etc. It may not seem that they always share what that plan is. Or, in my case, they did but I didn't always hear it. I've been lucky to have my wife along on this journey to interpret, reinforce, and just repeat our discussions with doctors.
Keep the faith!