Posted 10/3/2018 2:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone. Been lurking for a long time. At Pratoman's urging, I'd like to introduce myself and hopefully start humbly adding to the discussion here. After a couple of years of fluctuating PSAs and rounds of antibiotics, my PSA hit 4.2 (I was 47 at the time) so my urologist scheduled a biopsy. It came back 3 of 12 cores positive, bilateral, G6. The number of positive cores and volume of cancer in the cores (and, I believe, my age) disqualified me from AS, so I bought Dr. Walsh's book and met with a surgeon and an RO. In the meantime, I sent the slides to Dr. Epstein for a second look -- no change. After much hand wringing, I settled on surgery and got it done. I had open surgery and the post-surgery pathology upgraded one of the tumors to G7. Apparently it was organ confined and I have been holding at <0.1 for a couple of years now. Continence has been fully restored, but I am still dealing with the other problem to some extent. Overall, it was a flurry of emotions, decisions, and doctor visits. It made me realize that we are not really in control of our lives -- we are just along for the ride. That being said, I now appreciate life a whole lot more. I am thinking of and praying for all of you who are fighting this and for all of you new guys who are just beginning your journey.