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2 (plus) year Update After Surgery

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Posted 10/21/2019 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hello All,

I have had 4 Tests since I got my surgery done 2 years ago and they all came back <.01. Today I went to have my fifth test done and it was the same lab and it came back at <.05. Is this a rise, should I be worried...what happens next?
Posted 10/21/2019 5:39 PM (GMT 0)
Your lab must me be using a different machine or different assay. You're still good to go. No worries.

Congratulations on your treatment success!
Posted 10/21/2019 5:49 PM (GMT 0)

Mrbaseball220 said...
...what happens next?

You buy us a beer for the celebration party.

Great news!

and it means, someone did a different test with a different sensitivity level. You might want to ask the doc about that.

Andrew
Posted 10/21/2019 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Andrew,

I called the lab and her words were nothing has changed. But that does indicate that it has gone up correct? What are the questions to ask and to who so that I can be as happy as you guys are? I feel like i'm freaking out a bit.
Posted 10/21/2019 5:58 PM (GMT 0)
Relax man,
You're still undectable. No, it didn't go up. To put your mind at ease I suppose you could insist on a retest with a 0.01 cut off, but it won't make any difference.
Posted 10/21/2019 6:10 PM (GMT 0)
The lab isn't correct. Something changed. You were <.01. <.01 is less than .05 - they couldn't have tested you with the same sensitivity because if you were above .01 you should have gotten .02 or .03 or .04. But they're reporting <.05 which means the test can't measure anything below .05. If the test was truly a sensitivity of <.01 than any reading about .01 would have an actual number and not with a '<' sign.

Whoever you talked to at the lab was incorrect.
Posted 10/21/2019 6:12 PM (GMT 0)
So who do I ask to talk to and what specifically am I asking them? Thank you for that response.
Posted 10/21/2019 6:13 PM (GMT 0)
I'd call your doctor, or whoever ordered the test. The lab can only look at the current order.
Posted 10/21/2019 7:35 PM (GMT 0)
Just got a call back from the Lab and they let me know the testing parameters changed in August of this year and the lowest they can go now is <.05, so I am good to go! What a relief! As far as the rest of things...23 months out, erections with Cialis are good and incontinence is mostly gone,but I still wear one pad daily just in case. I have to admit i've not done my Kegels as I should have and that's probably the reason I still have some issues. Any thoughts on if it's too late to regain it fully if I started doing Kegels? Other than that, all else is good here with recovery.
Posted 10/21/2019 8:21 PM (GMT 0)
👍👍👍
Posted 10/22/2019 2:13 AM (GMT 0)
It's never too late to do your kegels. Great results. Sorry you had to have the anxiety but after all PSA stands for Prostate Specific Anxiety test.
Posted 10/23/2019 10:59 AM (GMT 0)
The key information is the < sign. It means that they can't measure anything below that. In chemical analysis, there is no such thing as a "0" result. There is a known value that CAN be measured (in this case 0.05), and there are readings that are "present but smaller than we can say for sure", so they report as a <.

This whole thing of ever changing low limits creates way more anxiety than it should...and no one ever explains them to the patient.
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