Managing care after RRP

Welcome to the site.

Are you seeing these docs due to the one little blip in your PSA score?

I think I'd wait another month or two and test again.

Welcome aboard!

I am a pT3a also and I have PSA test every 3 months like you. I guess your doctor just wants you to meet with a RO to prepare for additional treatment should you need it down the road.

I was told to keep having the test and if my PSA climbed 0.2, I may need SRT. My PSA has climbed to 0.1 and stayed there for 1 year. So far you are looking pretty good with your results.

Bill from Florida

Meeting went well. Glad we had it. Knowing we have calm, knowledgeable, direct MO and RO to work with makes anticipating what the future may bring us less frightening.

The stories and advice of others here with so much experience with this disease are helpful too.

So I'm in the post-RP quarterly PSA group now & hoping ED will resolve along the way.

Best to everyone -

A new club....the 3 month PSA club. Welcome, I'm a member. And welcome to the forum

Excellent point Wilderness; on the caution. Each and every case can be sooo different and new members would be wise to realize this. And while a majority may work one way;if you are in the minority it can catch you off guard. Sometimes preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is a good way to go. PREPARING being the key word. Doesn't mean endless worrying, just means do your due diligence.

Best of luck, doesn't seem like you've been dealt a great hand so far but with your approach things should hopefully work out for you in the long run...Jim

June 2016 update -

Following the rise in PSA at the beginning of the year, I made a fairly radical diet change, dropping meat, eggs, dairy, sugar and reducing carbs. I added turmeric, flax, black pepper, soy. I eat vegetables, berries, fish, fruit, whole grains, take a multivitamin and vitamin D. We joke that I have two meals: "Oatmeal" and "NOT Oatmeal" I feel good.

PSA (see sig) has dropped from .06 to .04 and today .03. Maybe diet helps? Anyway I'll stay with it. So far I count myself among the very lucky ones.

Best to everyone here -

Wilderness

Widerness, your PSA series falls well into "low detectable-stable prostate specific antigen (greater than 0.03 and less than 0.2 ng/ml, no 2 subsequent increases and/or prostate specific antigen velocity less than 0.05 ng per year" for which my doctor would say "radiation therapy is unnecessary in most of these cases, and only adds the risk of undesired side effects". What does your doctor say?

I have high confidence in my RO (Anthony Zietman) and MO (Matt Smith) - both endorsed by Allen. I'm following their advice - which is to hold off until 0.10 for second-line therapy. Last February when PSA had climbed from .01 to .06 in a couple of months I thought I'd be there soon. Now, I don't know - take it three months at a time.

I've not discussed diet with a doctor - though my GP is a to some degree aware of what I am doing. The diet is culled from this forum (thank you cashlessclay!) and other internet sources.

My wife has had a lengthy and excellent remission from chronic inflammatory bowel disease through diet - even with little discipline.

When I consider how small a pill is and how much it can change things in me and then how much food I eat and that so much internal chemistry results, I would not be surprised to learn that what I choose to eat could have considerable effect on the course of my health - perhaps even on cancer.

Allen - back when PSA appeared to be rising rapidly despite clean margins I asked you about foregoing salvage radiation, but was immediately dissuaded by your advice.

Are there other prostatectomy patients with low, measurable PSAs that are stable with no further treatment? And for how long?

I wonder how many of us include diet among our cancer defenses.

Best to everyone in our community -

Wilderness.