ASAdvocate said...
So, the arguments about "something really bad could be missed" "don't bet your life, get a biopsy" will continue.
halbert said...
On the other hand, anything that moves doctors away from "You have high PSA therefore you have cancer" is a good thing. Whether we like it or not, diagnosis will require biopsy...
Then there is the case of easy dismissal of what I now know should have been OBVIOUS signs... my Urologist telling me that a rise in my baseline PSA of 4 was nothing to be concerned about
. I requested a DRE which he said was normal, as were ALL the DRE's he ever did on me. He only became concerned when my PSA went above 10, did a biopsy which he said was (again) "NORMAL". This was over three years ago.
No one ever mentioned the word 'cancer' until last July. I had requested an MRI and he said he did not do those, but his partner did. That's what finally found my tumor, which had by then already escaped the prostate. Am I "pi$$ed"? You bet I am.
This thing could have been nipped in the bud, except I had no idea that everything was pointing toward cancer, and the one person I trusted to keep me informed totally dismissed all the warning signs. Now I am totally incontinent, had two surgeries to implant an AUS just so I can go thru two months of radiation and will still be on Lupron for at least another year after that. And no guarantee this this will never recur some months or years down the road.
Oh how I admire those guys whose doctor says your PSA is a little elevated and your DRE is suspect, lets do a biopsy... and the biopsy discovers some small 3+3 which is zapped or cut away and that's the end of the story.