Posted 5/18/2016 9:20 PM (GMT 0)
This is my first post here, although I have done quite a lot of lurking. I am 59 years old and 4 months ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I am now 3 months post surgery and thought I would tell my story. Hopefully some of you will find my story helpful.
I first suspected I had a problem during a routine physical, something I hadn’t had for several years; my internist felt some firmness on one side of the prostate. My first PSA came back at 4.6. He suggested I wait 30 days and do another PSA. The second PSA came back at 5.2. He suggested I see a urologist.
I did some research and made an appointment with a urologist. During the physical exam he also felt the firmness my internist mentioned. Together with the rising PSA he suggested a CT scan and a biopsy. I had the biopsy and waited for the results. A few days prior to my scheduled appointment to discuss the results my urologist called with the results. The results were discouraging as a malignant tumor was detected that had invaded a seminal vesicle. I started doing some research on treatment options while I waited for the appointment. My Gleason score was 3+4 with pT3b seminal vesicle invasion.
At my appointment we discussed the options for treatment. I decided to have open surgery, primarily for one reason. I wanted my surgeon to have the tactile feedback that is missing in robotic surgery. He was in full agreement with my decision and we scheduled the surgery.
The surgery went very well. He removed 8 lymph nodes and spared all the nerves. The biopsy showed clear margins. It appeared to be the best possible outcome. From all of my research, I don’t believe my recovery was any more difficult than if I had undergone robotic surgery. I was off narcotics after the first day and used only aspirin for a few days. The worst part of recovery was the first bowel movement, which was quite difficult. After that, it was just a matter of dealing with the catheter.
I returned to work 4 weeks after surgery. After 2 months I had regained full continence and not quite full erectile function. At 3 months I had my first PSA. My urologist called me with the results—below 0.02. Needless to say, I was quite pleased. At my appointment a few days later, he told me he had run the hyper-sensitive test, and it had come back below 0.01. It looked like I was clear. My only concern was the seminal vesicle invasion. Even with clear margins, this is a cause for concern and used to be considered a very poor diagnosis. But based on his current research, we agreed that radiation this soon was not needed. I will have a PSA every 3 months for the next year. If there is any rise in the PSA, we will think about radiation at that point. I am now starting to get back to a normal life of not thinking about prostate cancer. If it returns, I have a plan. I now consider myself in remission and life goes on.