Hello, all, new member here. I have been lurking here on and off for the last few months, only recently signing up. Thought that I'd come out of hiding to say hello.
In December of last year, I was preparing for minor knee surgery, and my primary care provider asked if I would be willing to provide the lab a few extra vials of blood as we had never really done a full blood work up (the standard pre-op blood panel was minimal at best.) There is history of prostate cancer in my family (my father), so she added a PSA test to the list of things she wanted to look at to create a baseline for my healthcare moving forward.
My PSA came back at 3.4, which, while not very high at all, was certainly higher than expected in a 44 year old. To rule out a false positive, we repeated the test four weeks later. The second test came back with PSA of 3.7, so I was referred to Urology for a consultation and biopsy. While performing the DRE, my urologist felt a distinct, hard ridge, which added a couple more cores to the biopsy. On 2/14/14 (yep, Valentine's Day), we received the news that my biopsy results were positive for cancer. 12 of 14 cores were positive, 75% or more of each sample had cancer cells, and I was measured out at Gleason 4+3/7 and T2c. I won't delve into the emotional side of things here, I suspect everyone here remembers well their precise reaction to getting "the news"....
With the roller coaster in full operation at this point, my wife and I dove fervently into research and education mode, while my medical team lined up all of the follow up tests to determine as best we could the extent of my disease. CT and bone scans both came back negative, and we felt confident that the disease was contained within the prostate. Given my age, the local nature of my cancer, and my desire to aggressively pursue a cure, we elected to have a RALP performed, though we scheduled this in May so we could keep our (now more than ever) much needed family trip to Hawaii on the calendar.
To add a little additional color to all of these proceedings, it was about
mid-March when I got a gallstone stuck in my bile duct, and was hospitalized for four days while they diagnosed that issue, and removed the stone endoscopically. I was not pleased when my GI doc told me that normally the next step in this type of case would be to schedule a Cholystectomy about
four weeks after the gallstone removal. Ugh, another procedure!
The RALP was performed on 5/5 at Kaiser in Santa Clara, CA, and we worked out the OR schedules so that my lapCholy could be done at the same time (RALP first, lapCholy second.) Everything went well, though my surgeon ended up having to take part of one of my nerves, as the mass of cancer was large, and fully involved the right side of the prostate. We had discussed this as a potential course that he might have to take once he had a first hand look at my prostate, though we mutually agreed that while nerve sparing was a goal, removal of all of the cancer with clean margins with the priority. My post-operative pathology indicated a revised Gleason score of 4+4/8, T3a/N0, clean margins around the removed tissue, and microscopic penetration of the capsular wall.
Recovery from the surgery has gone well. I am 10 weeks out from the procedure, and have virtually no issues with incontinence, I'm back to running regularly (training for a 1/2 marathon in October), and have returned to work. I have no erectile function as of yet, even with 100mg Sildenafil, but I am not rushing to conclusions or despair in that department (nice to have both time, and other treatment options as my disposal on this front.) My first PSA test came back last week as undetectable
, and my urologist is switching me over to the ultra sensitive PSA test so that we have the best chance of catching any change in PSA level as early as possible. My wife and I have just met with a Radiation Oncologist to discuss the potential for adjuvent RT (or salvage treatment), though we have not yet made a decision if we will move forward with that approach (we are awaiting some clarification on the pathology report to determine if the capsular penetration was focal, or multi-site.)
That's my PCa experience thus far in a nutshell (abridged version.....) I have benefitted greatly from the unwavering love/support from my wife, family and friends, and feel as though I have had an excellent medical team working with me throughout to determine and execute upon my treatment options. I have also gained a great level of support from just reading through other people's experiences here, especially the approaches taken by those similar in age, etc.
So, just stopping by to say hello, and thank you. I tend to not be a prolific poster, but look forward to continuing to garner knowledge from the members here, and to lending the benefit of my experience where I can.
If I left out any details that you are just dying to hear about
, please don't hesitate to ask. If I didn't type it, it's probably because I didn't think of it, or wanted to keep post #1 under 500 pages! :)
All the best,
Rich G
PS: my knee is fine, and no lingering dietary/GI issues stemming from the Cholystectomy!
