epsom,
Glad to see you joing the board, but as always, new members are the last thing we want to see.
I see your comment about an "unreliable PSA". I'm not sure what you mean. I'm sure you realize this now, but I repeat it for those who come after us. A PSA test only gives you one rather vague view of the situation, and has to be used together with a DRE and eventual biopsy before it can be assigned any sort of significance.
In my case I had a PSA (detected only by an almost accidental PSA test in some annual blood work, no symptoms, no evident problems) of 7.x (yes, high, but could have been caused by BPH or prostatitis). That pushed me to the Uro, who found problems with the DRE, and ordered a biopsy, finding a G 3+4 on 2 of 12 cores, G 4+4 on 7 of the 12.
All of those parts considered together told me that I had PCa. I turned out being a G 4+5 post-surgery.
I know of support group members who had PSAs of as little as 2, with PCa, and others with PSAs of huge numbers caused only by infections.
I think we spend too much time wondering how we got where we are,. It is now not as important as where we go with what we have learned. It sounds like you are on the road now, and you have quite a crew of folks who will help where we can.
Welcome again!