HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

2 year update (HDR)

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 10/20/2016 3:47 AM (GMT 0)
Hope all are well and hello from Georgia!

Exactly two years ago I was diagnosed.

My PSA today was 0.70. It's 22 months from my treatment. I'm pretty stoked!

Minor side effect (low volume ejaculate and mild ED (1/2 a Cialus per...)

Roll Tide!
Posted 10/20/2016 11:47 AM (GMT 0)
Great report and I am confident your success will continue.
Posted 10/20/2016 2:22 PM (GMT 0)
Glad to hear it Dwayne! Keep on keeping on!
Posted 10/21/2016 1:54 AM (GMT 0)
Congrats, Dewayne. Looking good.

Coming up soon on my two year diagnosis.
Posted 10/25/2016 9:48 AM (GMT 0)
Wow, 2 years already! Congrats Dewayne, sounds like you are doing great. I'll be going in for my 24 month PSA test in a couple of weeks.
Posted 10/25/2016 4:28 PM (GMT 0)
Congrats Dewayne!! I'm looking for the same in the near future. I am scheduled for HDR at CCA (Newnan) on Dec. 5. Can you tell me where you went for the HDR? Thanks
Posted 11/14/2016 4:20 AM (GMT 0)
Congrats Dewayne. We got here around the same time, I remember that well, although we chose different treatment paths. I'm Glad to hear you are doing well. My two year check comes up in January, I hope to follow in your footsteps.
Posted 11/14/2016 5:47 AM (GMT 0)
PARTY TIME!!!

Andrew
Posted 11/15/2016 5:50 AM (GMT 0)
Congratulations Dewayne on the good news. It's always nice to read about a treatment with low SE and positive treatment results. Being a new member here and still researching about different treatments, I was wondering if you or other members which had HDR Brachy could provide their personal experiences on insurance coverages, recovery time, and importance of having an experienced RO with this type of treatment. Since I live in Hawaii, I would also be very interested in any input from Hawaii-Guy.
Thanks in advance.
Posted 11/15/2016 2:46 PM (GMT 0)
Pax...I'll weigh in on your question. I had HDR brachy at UCLA (combo treatment with IMRT since I was a G9) and did pretty well with it. SEs were short-term burning and frequent urination, but that subsided after a week or two. Today, I'm fine--never a hint of ED, although I probably pee at only about 70% efficiency compared to what I used to. If I take a Flomax, that goes up to 100%, but in general I'm fine with the 70% so I rarely take one.

If you're in Hawaii, you might want to check out the UCLA HDR brachy program, which is one of the best programs in the country. I know of a Hawaii resident that had it done at UCLA. (Perhaps that's where Hawaii-Guy had his done as well?) They have a set-up where out-of-town people can stay.

I didn't have any insurance issues, although my policy had an OOP max of $6K and I think I had already blown through that by the time I had my brachy.
Posted 11/15/2016 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
Pax, I was an "early adopter" on this board using HDR. I had two procedures in December 2010. Additionally, due to the high risk dx, I had IMRT and ADT for three years. I am also a strong advocate of this treatment based on the facts and my experience. It has controlled my cancer and presented very minor side effects.

Insurance coverage for HDR treatments were absolutely routine. I have never heard of any insurance or Medicare issues regarding HDR. Why do you ask?

Any treatment you seek should start with an excellent practitioner, HDR is no exception. Look for the total number of procedures and the current through-put. At the time I was treated, my rad onc/urologist team had done about 1,000 procedures together and were performing 4-6 per week. Today they are doing even more as they have seen many more men use HDR instead of surgery.

My side effects were normal and minimal. Some increased urinary and bowel urgency and frequency that all stopped about two weeks after the radiation. Of course, I had IMRT with HDR so which was the contributing factor? I do have greatly diminished ejaculate, very typical side effect of any prostate radiation treatment.

The immediate side effects from the two HDR procedures were minimal and my recovery was less than two weeks total. First, I had some urinary burning for a day or two from the first procedure. I told the rad onc and for the second procedure the urologist used a different lubricant for the catheter. No burning. So this side effect had nothing to do with the HDR. After each procedure I had a lot of bruising in the groin area which looked odd and cleared within a week. There is some internal bleeding from the catheters being inserted (punctures) and the blood pools in the groin and scrotum. I was also a little tender in the nether region for a week or so and was careful when sitting and avoided hard chairs. Never a problem and it completely cleared in a couple of weeks.

In all. the HDR treatment was a non event. I only lost the work days that I was treated on. I had absolutely no activity restrictions or limitations and would have been fine playing golf the next day. Long term I am very pleased with all my treatments. So far complete cancer control and side effect free.

I have recommended it as a core form of treatment and will continue to do so. Personally,I have no earthly idea why anyone would choose surgery and the greater risk and side effects presented. As I look back on all this, the greatest value in my experience was to have a urologist/surgeon who told me "no surgery, I have something better".
Posted 11/15/2016 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
Similar experiences to JNF.

My Blue Cross approved and covered the procedures, including a second MRI just before starting my treatment, except for $10 co-pays.

Had the urinary burning after the first procedure (did I ever!), but not on the second procedure where they used novacaine on the catheter. Some urinary discomfort for about a month afterwards.

Most people did not know and still don't know I was treated. Life is going on basically the same as before.
Posted 11/16/2016 2:23 AM (GMT 0)
Dwayne, glad to hear your doing well. If you don't mind did you go the Newnan to have it done at Cancer Center of America? That is where I am scheduled for on Dec. 6 with Dr. Cavanaugh. Could by chance you have used him? I have heard great things about him and his work. Again congrats on results
Posted 11/16/2016 5:56 AM (GMT 0)
Didn't mean to hijack this thread, but thanks to Michael_T and JNF for their responses. In response to JNF, the reason why I was asking about the insurance coverage was that I recently found out that the PPO health insurance I have has rejected claims for SBRT for Tx of P-ca (a Tx I was originally investigating). The RO I was consulting with instead suggested HDR brachy as having low SE and possibly better targeting of the prostate than SBRT. Thanks again for your quick responses.
Posted 11/17/2016 8:12 PM (GMT 0)
I've posted before that SBRT is often not automatically approved for GL7 cases similar to mine. I was advised by two different RO's that it would require letter writing on their part and in the end might still not be approved. At that point I was anxious to start treatment and didn't want to delay in the hope of an SBRT approval - a big reason I opted for the approved HDR.
Posted 11/17/2016 10:54 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for all the well wishes.

I just got on for the first time in 3 weeks so my apologies for the delay.

I had my HDR Brachytherapy in Atlanta at Winship Cancer Inst., which is Emory/St. Joseph's. The procedure was at St. Joseph's and was performed by Dr. Peter Rossi.

all4coop, I didn't check out Cancer Centers of America. Others here might can share more on them, but I would recommend at least getting a second opinion from Winship Cancer at Emory. I also went to Duke for a whole day of visits with different specialists.

My urinary function is actually better than before the procedure in most ways. Before treatment, I woke up once a night to urinate, and typically leaked a drop or three after urinating in the day. It was like my bladder wouldn't completely empty either. All that was healed. However, now I do experience a little more "urgency" than I remember before.

I have/had low T of about 180 prior to the treatment and, at 48, could tell I was getting a little bit of mild ED. I didn't take Viagra or anything but did get a couple of samples and it worked great prior to my procedure. Now, I do take one and a half Cialis per week. It works pretty good if I take it 5 hours or so prior, and that gets me through two days usually. So, the wife of 25 years and I are 'active' about 2-3 times a week. I'm not as 'effective' as prior to the treatment, but it's still pretty good. So, I wouldn't say I haven't had ANY ED effects, because I have.

I'm hoping in January my urologist OK's a little T therapy to get it up to 400 or so. Prior to my diagnosis, I was on a supplement (shot) and we were "active" 4-5 times per week! I was on it for 8 months and my PSA doubled and I was diagnosed.

I'd recommend HDR for sure. There was very little recovery time needed and I worked the next day after round 1 and took a day off after round 2.
Posted 11/19/2016 2:16 AM (GMT 0)
thanks for your reply Dewayne, I hope you continue to drop on PSA. I will report after my first round the first week of Dec.
Posted 11/19/2016 2:44 AM (GMT 0)
Dewayne, My latest PSA was pretty close to yours, 0.92 at the 2 year mark and still trending down. I guess I had a minor bounce since I went from 1.08 to 1.15, and then to my recent 0.92. Glad you are doing well, and I look forward to a positive 3 year update in 12 months.

PAX, I went to UCLA for the HDR treatment. Local Honolulu RO that I saw was not willing to treat me with HDR monotherapy, and I wanted to go with the best practitioner that I could find. I was very happy with the UCLA treatment, the doctor and staff that treated me have specialized exclusively in HDR for at least the past 20 years. I did have some insurance issues, I'll try to PM my contact info to you so we can discuss the specifics off-line.
Posted 11/19/2016 2:54 AM (GMT 0)
PAX,

I couldn't figure out how to send you a PM. You can email me at hawaiiguy96808(at)gmail(dot)com
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply