The whole Enchalada--My decision

9 out of 10 cores positive--wow..I had never met the urologist who called me in for a consult; she wanted to do radical and take both nerves and talked at me instead of to me--lasted 5 minutes at the most...Read every book to include a hospital library's reserved for doctors...Looked at the internet and then went to Gunderson/Lutheran oncology and asked the radiation receptionist who was best..She told me and we set up an appointment after I dropped off my records..Dr Collin Driscoll (he's 6'4) with large hands gave me a DRE I'll never forget! Yeah he found the ece on the right side..I asked for a prognosis and he pulled out the nccn guidelines which sealed the deal for radiation and hormones..
Many men select surgery since if it fails there is always radiation;
Well, I read of too many failed adjunct and salvage treatments after surgery..To be truthful, I was in a hospital once and almost died...Anyway, no pads but bowel problems--ed--don't ask!

I am a firm believer that you do everything you can to avoid surgery and court....both are dangerous and generally have negative and long lasting side effects. I was 12/12 and G7 and my Uro-surgeon said absolutely no surgery as he was positive it would not be curative. Why put me through the risks and side effects of surgery and radiation? I agreed and appreciated his approach.

As you see I have done two forms of radiation and I am two years into a three year course of HT. Urinary is fine, no bowell problems, but ed until I am offf the HT. Overall I am very glad I didn't have surgery, but then I am afraid of knives unless I am cooking!! For the many that it has worked for, I am glad and respect their decisions. But, for the high risk dx, it is well documented that there are better approaches.

Gunfighter,
What was your psa? You may want to consider brachy/radiation combo along with HT, just because it gives a lot more radiation dose to the prostate with the same side effects. about 150gy vs 81 gy for external radiation only. I'm three years out of that treatment with no side effects and a psa of .1. It also has a slighlty higher cure rate than external alone. Welcome back from a fellow grunt.

JT