Have lurked for a while and learned much, now signed up.

Hello, I am 65 and come from the UK. I got a shock PSA result of 6.7 following routine test in Oct 2013. This was repeated in Feb 2014.

I was diagnosed with PCA in June this year after several months of PSA rising at a rate of 1 per month (6.7 to 9.7 in 3 months). MRI showed 2 tumours one probably "moderate" aggressive, template biopsy produced 8 positive cores out of 33 taken, Gleason 4+3 = 7. I had Da Vinci surgery on 30th July 2014. Surgeon advised not sparing erectile nerves. All margins were negative but some evidence of early capsular extension. SV and Lymph nodes all clear.

I regained complete urinary continence some 48hrs after the catheter was removed, and realise just how lucky I am (and how skilled the surgeon was!).

My surgeon discharged me from his care yesterday and feels I stand a good chance of being fine though needing to closely monitor PSA from hereon. Agrees with me that I need to make the most of the coming years and enter SRT if I get unlucky and have a recurrence.

Clearly I have total ED and am starting down the road of wanting to do something about that. Early experiments with a vacuum pump are proving of limited success and a tad painful. I will soon be speaking to a specialist about Caverject injections which seem to be the standard starting drug for this treatment. The very thought appals me but both my wife and I are far too sad at what we have lost not to give it a go! I have real concerns about reports of the injections being painful especially after RP within previous 2 years but guess I won't know if it will effect me in this way till I try it.

Throughout the last 6 months I have worked very hard at learning as much as possible about my disease so that I could play an informed role in my treatment options and decisions. This forum has been amazingly helpful in that research and I thank everyone for the supportive, informative and positive help that is always available for people new to the diagnosis and often just plain scared as was I. There must be many who like me have lurked around the site drawing information and comfort without ever posting their story.

Welcome to HW.
Glad you came out of lurk mode. Good report so far.

You'll do fine. Give the ED thing some time - you're still very close to the RP and it can months, year, in some cases.

Hang in there and keep us updated on your progress.
Andrew

Welcome, aboard.

Sorry you needed to join, but you will fit right in with the gang here.

Good luck ahead, as you tackle your ED issues related to surgery.

David

I think the standard penile rehab is either pump or injections two or three times a week. I don't think oral drugs work if nerves are not spared. I'm a week short of one year post surgery and my nerves are still not working, or maybe only slightly lately. Injections work great! Trimix causes an ache so I went back to bimix. No ache with that and it works very well indeed for me and my wife. You'll get past the needle stick quickly. Really the biggest part of all this is you lose spontaneity because it takes a few minutes (10 or so) before it's ready. But it sounds like you have a willing wife so you're 90% there already.

Bimix and trimix are compounded here. My insurance won't cover them because they aren't FDA approved, due to presumed lack of control of the mixing process at compounding pharmacies. Caverject might be the only approved one. Bimix and trimix are still much less expensive than the oral drugs per "event". My insurance only covers 15 Cialis per 60 days, and that's for the 5mg 'daily' dose. That dose won't even work in that scenario.