Biopsy Tomorrow

Good Afternoon,
So what is your age? Generally where are you located? And how would you describe your general health status?
Hero

I am 64 years old, live in Ohio and am in excellent health.....fitness nut

I didn’t at all like my biopsy. My brother had his in the same room by the same doctor and he went out and ate and took in a movie after the procedure.
At your age with the DRE finding and the PSA result/history, it would be no surprise if the biopsy detects cancer. It is then, when you get the actual pathology result, that you need to make some very careful decisions.
1) I always recommend going to a national cancer center for treatment.
2) Read up on all the different treatment options including AS (in a particular group of prostate cancer patients AS is an excellent option). One of my best friends is on his 3 year of AS with a very stable PSA.
3) Start today to get in the best shape of your life, diet, exercise, meditation, and rest (done)
Hero

Active Surveillance. Google Active Surveillance info for Prostate Cancer

Hero

Enrico,
I'm glad you found this forum. In my opinion it's the best source of prostate cancer information on the internet. I would encourage you to study the two threads at the top in order to better understand and navigate all the helpful information here. I was diagnosed just two months ago after having a biopsy on 1/25/17. I found the biopsy TRUS guided no worse than a trip to the dentist. Most urologists numb you for the procedure. You do hear a fairly loud click as each tissue thread is obtained. The whole thing was done in ten minutes. I was riding a bicycle the next day. No blood in the urine; however, some blood in my ejaculate with some browning that lasted about four weeks. I'm still in the information gathering stage before deciding on a treatment. For the low risk guys there are a lot of options and this forum has them covered.

Hi, Enrico.

You are about 5 years younger than I, and about 8 months behind me on the journey. I had my first biopsy last July, after several years of steadily rising PSA readings. When it got to 5.7, my uro recommended a biopsy. . . and the rest is the history shown in my signature.

I won't get ahead of you by immediately discussing treatment options, as we don't really know what your biopsy may show. What I do strongly suggest is to ask your urologist to use a prostatic nerve block just before the procedure. If he tells you "It will be fine. We will use some lidocaine. Most men tolerate this just fine" what he really means is that you will feel the procedure. I had that nerve block for my biopsy, and it was quite as they say -- pain free. I went from there out to lunch with my wife. I also had another similar procedure done in prep for radiation treatment - with only the lidocaine. It was a pain, but as soon as they were finished, so was the pain. Maybe it is just me, but none of this was that big a deal.

As tennisplayer mentioned, at this time it makes sense to prepare yourself for the possibility of a positive biopsy report. Your PSA is moderately elevated, but seems to have been consistently so. This may indicate higher odds of cancer than of a prostate infection, which often causes elevated PSA but of shorter duration.

The big thing right now is to get through the biopsy, then get calm but ready for "the call." Once you have the information from the call, if it is cancer, gather all the numbers and come on back. No matter what results you have, I'll bet someone around here has had results quite similar, and can help you begin the education process.

Bear in mind, too, that most prostate cancers are slow-growing. Unless you have one of the less-common super-beastly varieties, you have the luxury of time to learn, discern and choose the treatment option that you feel is best for you.

Hang in there. We've all bee where you are now. We'll be here for you.

Taking two weeks for the results sounds unusual to me. At Johns Hopkins, they have the biopsy results within two working days, and post them online for you to access with MyChart. But, if that is how your doctor's office operates, then you have to distract yourself until "the call" comes.

Please do not jump ahead and assume that you have cancer. a psa of 7 is common for prostatitis and infections. The DRE makes things more suspicious, but you should know that over 60 percent of first prostate biopsies are negative.

And, the details of your results, if positive, will determine which courses of action are best suited for you. Probably 45-50 percent of newly diagnosed men will not require immediate treatment, and most of those never will.

So, please post your results when you have them. Do not let the first doctor you speak with push into the treatment that he does best, it may not be the best one for you. Good luck.

Ditto on what Paxton said.

Deal with the biopsy first and then interpret those results.

Tony

The biopsies are not fun but I didnt experience any pain just some discomfort (had 3 done). The waiting part sucks but part of the process. Keep in mind whatever the results you have lots of options. Good luck

Enrico-
The information on the bottom is called the "signature" field of your profile. We normally list clinical data from our diagnosis and treatments. Things like our PSA history, the results of our biopsy, pathology report after surgery, what type of radiation, and PSA levels after treatment.

Good luck with your biopsy results.

When you say a "trickle in the urine", are you referring to just a small amount of blood or your urine output is just a trickle?
When was the biopsy performed?

Sorry to hear the post biopsy issues have been difficult. I didn't experience anything like that. But you should improve rapidly.