Posted 6/8/2010 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
Best to you and get the anesthetic hopefully to avoid the pain, which is similar to a rubber band being snapped on your posterior (politically correct word I guess). Do you know how many biopsies your are getting? Can you maybe tell them to send the samples to leading pathologists like: Bostwick, Oppenheimer or Epstein and a very few others? (highly suggested and if going to the first two guys you can pay for additional and get ploidity testing analysis and some other optional testing things...might want to know all you can about this up front, your whole scenario is based upon pathology and psa history and plugged into nomograms, Partin tables and such.
There is alot more to pathology than many are aware of and some docs under state and say the local guy is just as good etc. (probably not, these specialists were the ones whom have identified 18 variant types of PCa and 3 different ploidity DNA structures in PCa cells.) It can make a difference as to what exactly one might be dealing with. The local guy is not a specialist at the level of these other guys, they are world class at this. As soon as you mention Bostwick and the others to maybe send out pathology to, you can expect a heads up from the doc...he may think you know alot more than maybe you actually do or would. Some uro-docs and other don't even know that there are 18 variants types of PCa, maybe they are really dumb and don't even know about ploidity testing, some uros not long ago didn't even know enough about psa velocity, doubling times, history...some even lost in court (sued)as to not notifying the patient of the risk of their psa levels or advising of treatments, when clearly it should have been mentioned. Supposedly it has improved alot since maybe 2000 or so, don't bank fully on it. Alittle skepticizm on your part is better than full trust given to any doc (my opinion-with my own case history as my guide..got 8 opinions+)-2002 era.
Oh tell your doc you want the actual (copy) of the pathology in your hands, so you can look it over(learn what it means), discuss it, show it here, use it for second opinions if you go elsewhere (they want to see it) same goes for psa tests and other testings.
Might as well be prepared up front. Majority of men diagnosed are usually in the lower risk scenario and usually have many options for treatments, that would be the good news, so if you are found with PCa which based upon the fpsa test, would seem maybe more likely than not. Plenty of guys here in can answer things you may have come up.