New Boy Here

Gentlemen,

I'm not certain yet that I need to be here but I think it's fairly likely - I'll know for sure in a week or so. I've been lurking for some time before joining so I'm broadly familiar with the discussions here. In the meantime I'd like to give you my history and ask what you make of all this :-

1) In about March/April 2006 I had an episode of haemospermia, this sent me off to my GP pretty sharpish.

2) He took some blood for a PSA test. This came back as 16.0, so I was referred to a Urologist at my local hospital.

3) The urologist organised an 8-core biopsy, the pathology report on this was "atypical."

4) Biopsy was repeated 3 months later, this time 16 cores were taken. Pathology was negative, no cancer found.

5) For the next three years I had 6-monthly PSA tests, values bounced along around 11 - 13. No more biopsies performed.

6) In 2010 I asked why I was going to the hospital every six months when nobody was doing anything. The Urologist agreed (!!) and discharged me, telling me to come back if my PSA rose above 17.

7) I then spoke to my GP again and asked him if he thought all this was right. He sent me for an ultrasound test, this did not indicate any prostate problem BUT did suggest I had thickening of the bladder wall. The radiologist advised me to get a cystoscopy performed.

8) So I was duly referred back to Urology and had the cystoscopy, this showed that I had a number of superficial bladder tumours so I was duly booked in for a TURBT procedure to remove them.

9) As the same time as I had the TURBT, the urologist took the opportunity ( with my agreement ) to perform a saturation prostate biopsy under the same anaesthetic as my PSA had risen to 15.9 again.

10) I have an appointment on 14/9 to discuss the results of both procedures. BUT in the meantime I have been sent for both a bone scan and an MRI scan; neither of these tests as discussed with me beforehand !!


So as I said, opinions on the above are very welcome ! My own opinion is that, whereas I can understand the need for an MRI after the bladder tumours, I wouldn't have been sent for a bone scan unless the prostate biopsy showed something untoward. However that's just an informed guess so I suppose I should give the urologist thv benefit of the doubt until I see him.

Thanks for reading,

John ( in the UK)

Ah yes, trust me to forget the most obvious information ! I'm 60 in 10 day's time - and starting to feel it !


John

John, welcome aboard. You have quite a story going on there, I hope you don't need to be here, and hope they get your bladder matters under control.

Please keep us posted on your latest results.

David

CAMRAman,

"My own opinion is that, whereas I can understand the need for an MRI after the bladder tumours, I wouldn't have been sent for a bone scan unless the prostate biopsy showed something untoward"

It may just be a precautionary measure to make certain that the superficial bladder tumours have not become invasive. Just a thought...

Best of wishes on your report.

Thank you all for your thoughts, I'll update you after I see the Consultant next week. It's strange - five years ago I had resigned myself to being told that I had PCa and I had mentally prepared myself, but now I don't know what to believe.

One thing I do know though is that, regardless of what I get told at the hospital, the following day I'm off to Berlin to celebrate my 60th birthday - so I won't have the opportunity to fret whatever the news. Sprecht mann Deutsch ?


John

OK chaps, I have my results finally !

First the bladder stuff; the tumours were found to be low grade and non-invasive, so there's nothing to do there except to have 3-monthly cystoscopies to check for recurrence.

Unfortunately the prostate biopsy ( my third, remember ) was less encouraging. My stats are :-

- 20 cores taken
- 13 cores positive; 7 on the right side and six on the left.
- Gleason 3 + 4 on both sides.

Both the MRI scan and the bone scan were clear, so no metastasis at the moment. The urologist did day that some of the positive cores were "near the edge" of the prostate, presumably he's getting that from the MRI rather than from the biopsy but I'm not certain.

The urologists and oncologist will now get together on Friday to discuss my case and to decide on what they see as the best treatment options - urologist thinks either surgery or radiotherapy (but he includes brachytherapy under the heading of radiotherapy, good job I asked that question !) I will see them again next week, hopefully they will have come up with some firm recommendations.

So that's where I stand at the moment. Now I'm going to clear off to Berlin for a few days to celebrate my birthday and forget about all this - so if I don't respond immediately to your comments I'm not ignoring you, I'm just away from my computer for a few days. Back on Monday 19th !


John

Thank you Terry, I'll do that.

I think in my case I've only ever rented beer, it never seemed to stay in there for very long !


John