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Thankful for this forum! Almost 2 Years on AS

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Posted 11/25/2015 10:00 PM (GMT 0)
Coming up on 2 years of active surveillance and just had my 3 month PSA test which came in at .68. Yay!

If it were not for this forum I may very well have had RP and all the unknowns that go along with that.

So Healing Well is one big thing I am thankful for this holiday season. Many thanks to all the guys here that gave me great advice, and pointed me in all the right directions. yeah

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Mic - aka Geetarman.
Posted 11/25/2015 10:01 PM (GMT 0)
Great news!

Congratulations.

Andrew
Posted 11/25/2015 10:18 PM (GMT 0)
Always love seeing AS successes!!! Happy Thanksgiving to you also!
Posted 11/25/2015 11:38 PM (GMT 0)
Hey congratulations, GeetarMan...you are a HW/PC hero! A lot of new guys are looking to you as a great example! (And a lot of other favorable-risk guys who went the other route are looking and thinking "If only I had slowed down...")

Congratulations, again, and sincere Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted 11/26/2015 12:11 AM (GMT 0)
There are a lot of heroes on this board, guys fighting some tough battles and some very remarkable caregivers. I'm just a very, very lucky guy!

I just want other guys in my shoes to know they have options and AS should be seriously considered. You don't want to have RP and have the pathology show no PCa! I am pretty certain that would have been my story. With a PSA of .68, I have a hard time believing there is any cancer in there!
Posted 11/26/2015 12:38 AM (GMT 0)
Congrats to you! Hope you stay on AS the rest of your life.
Posted 11/26/2015 2:17 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the update, GeetarMan. All the best to you on your continuing journey....Tim
Posted 11/29/2015 5:58 PM (GMT 0)
I've ben on AS coming up on two years in December. My stats are similar to yours in that only one core was at 5% cancer. I've been taking finasteride and Flomax since the onset. My first biopsy was December, 2013. Second one was six months later in June of 2014. My third was performed in June of 2015. Both biopsies of June 2014 and 2015 were negative. So, for now, it's AS for me.
Posted 11/29/2015 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
WTG, Mic!
Posted 11/29/2015 9:15 PM (GMT 0)
It's coming up on 7 years of AS for me. Still see my uro annually & psa 2x a year. Thanks to HW for all the info to make that initial decision.
Posted Yesterday 12:32 PM (GMT 0)
Uncle Harley, you too are a site HERO!

It's gotta feel good to look around at all your contemporaries and all the problems you AVOIDED. Dr Klotz said his similar patients had a feeling of "ebullience" in recognizing that they made the right choice NOT pursuing aggressive treatments while many of their peers did.

Very best to you!
Posted Yesterday 12:37 PM (GMT 0)
Geetarman, uncle Harley, very impressive, that's great that you've been able to avoid treatment for so long. Here's to that trend continuing,
Foxbo, nice, may you follow in the footsteps of Geetarman, and Uncle.
Have to say I'm pretty amazed!!!
Posted Yesterday 1:18 PM (GMT 0)
Mic, Harley, Fox...there was a time when AS was a bad word here (well, two bad words). Now you guys have made it a new standard. WTG and I'm very happy for all of you who made such a great decision.

Jim
Posted Yesterday 2:35 PM (GMT 0)
I admire those that have chosen the AS route. I think the label "HERO" is a bit strong.. I leave that for the men fighting more serious battles. If you want to read about true hero's, read the Caregiver's Corner, those ladies are the true hero's of the board.

Again, I will always support AS, but more importantly, I support the decision of the brother no matter his treatment options. I do not judge or push a personal agenda based on reading some numbers on a board.

Mic, Fox and Harley, here is to continued Surveillance for you, you are great examples of success stories.

Jordan
Posted Yesterday 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Foxbo54....Another HW/PC Hero! So sorry that I missed your post in this thread. (I confess, I often don't read all of the posts in a thread...I try to maintain my place as an independent thinker and don't want my comments colored by others, so I often just skip from the beginning to the end of a thread...so sorry, again, that I missed your post.)

Some of your guys have been at it for a while--Uncle Harley, you in particular--but I think it is very exciting to see the tremendous up-take of AS in the last year or two, which is certainly having a positive impact on reducing the terrible epidemic of overtreatment of favorable-risk cases of PC.

Great work, guys! You guys are leaders!
Posted Yesterday 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
It's great that more people are picking AS as a treatment option. Great to see guys moving through life without have to be beat up by surgery or radiation.

Keep it going team!
Andrew
Posted Yesterday 3:03 PM (GMT 0)
Yep, thanks for the encouraging report guys!

"AS Sir?"
"Don't mind if I do"
Posted Yesterday 3:24 PM (GMT 0)
Paul65....a HW/PC hero newcomer!!



Foxbo54's case is particularly revealing for all newcomers with favorable-risk case characteristics, and highlights the PC Rule-of-Thumb which states: If you were diagnosed with favorable-risk PC and agreed-to an aggressive treatment after only one biopsy, your risk of having been overtreated is HIGH.

Just like everyone else in this large category of men, Foxbo54 had one biopsy which found a small amount of what we call (today, still) "prostate cancer." He then has his second confirmatory biopsy within a year later and nothing was found. Nothing found on the 3rd biopsy, either.

While I feel bad for the guys who rushed into aggressive treatment only to realize later that "no cure was needed" (reference the PC Treatment Quandry), I REALLY feel badly for the guys whose post-surgery pathology analysis found no PC....wouldn't that suck, Foxbo54?!?!
Posted Today 4:02 PM (GMT 0)
I congratulate you guys who were low risk and took the chance of going the AS route. It's a gutsy call.
Bob
Posted Today 4:11 PM (GMT 0)

Break60 said...
It's a gutsy call.




Hey Bob, I would point you back to an excellent thread discussion from September to channel that comment. It turns out that if you use data, and not emotion, it's perhaps not as "gutsy" as one might imagine. I suppose that each and every medical decision might be considered gutsy, but not so much in the way I think that you implied. Once a patient gets up into the favorable intermediate-risk cases, then there is a bit more risk to weigh...

I quickly scanned the September thread and see that you didn't post in it, so maybe you didn't see it at the time. Please go back and read it (and the link):


"Active Surveillance Update - 99.9 Percent Will not Die from Prostate Cancer"
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=3487697
Posted 12/2/2015 10:10 PM (GMT 0)
"I REALLY feel badly for the guys whose post-surgery pathology analysis found no PC....wouldn't that suck, Foxbo54?!?!"

Sure would. I feel sorry for anyone diagnosed with PC. I know it's tough to endure more biopsies, but that's part of the AS route.

I often wish I could wake up and it was all just a bad dream, but that can't be. The first month is the hardest, at least for me. There were books to read, doctor's visits, road trips for second opinions, etc. Never mind the "Why me" syndrome. I learned a lot, but it wasn't easy. This site helped as much as anything and I'm so grateful to have found it. I'm going to recommend to my Urologist that he make this site known to all patients diagnosed with PC.

I appreciate all the well wishes and you guys taking the time to post. It helps so much.
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