Well, after receiving the bad news of recurrence less than 18 months after surgery the nightmare continues. Got marked up today for SRT which should begin in the next week. I guess my journey is the same for many in the same boat...33 rounds of radiation. Still glad I chose surgery first even though the end result is recurrence.
One problem I have had during this journey is that even though I like my Uro, I think he downplayed the bad stuff. He always focused only on the positive, until he had no choice. For instance my Uro specifically stated my margins were clear, although I read on the pathology report all margins were negative, except where it said "Peripheral-focally positive left lateral anterior-mid at an area of capsular incision." I never questioned him, which is my fault, because I guess I wanted to believe what he told me and not what I read. In any case, imagine my shock when the Radiologist actually stated, "The good news is that even though it is microscopic, you had a positive margin." He then explained with a positive margin they are fairly certain the cancer is in the Prostate bed. Had my margins been clear then he said it would leave doubt that the cancer was there and it would be a challenge to find where the cancer is. So you can imagine my range of emotions with that news. Because of my numbers, Radiologist recommended against hormone therapy saying he wanted to save it for later if we need it.
It is still so hard to wrap my brain around all of this. I continue to feel fine and yet I have gone through surgery and now face radiation. No question a lot of trust goes into this whole process.