Anyone had surgery recently?

To add: Second biopsy showed increased volume of tumor with 8 of twelve showing G6 but after John's Hopkin's review, one core was upgraded to a G7

last PSA was 5.1 which with my large prostate is my normal

G

Be sure your urologist or surgeon agrees with the ADT before surgery. It may alter the postatic issue confounding your path report. And, certainly, it will interfere with your important first post surgery tests.

Thank you both.

I am glad people are so helpful here. On my phone and cannot type well so will add more later

Glen Heinsohn

Thanks Pratoman

I actually am not that concerned about ED
Back surgery and other issues have already closed that door for the most part. I still have function but it is hit and miss.

Glen Heinsohn

Hello again Mumbo and thanks that was an inspiring post.

Gotta admit I still hope radiation is possible and I will stop the testosterone. Years of being on opiate and opioid medications for my chronic pain did a number on my hormone levels and I have suffered for it. Very low T is the only hormone that has affected me but it is a dilly. If it were just low energy, muscle mass loss and low grade depression, I could live with it but for some reason low testosterone has a profound effect on me.Not to sound full of pity because I'm not at all feeling sorry for myself as I have a wonderful life and have been able to be of service to others for many years (service to others I believe is the key to happiness) My life has had some very low periods an upbringing in poverty and severe physical and emotional abuse by a father who was mentally ill (and forgiven) to my own 20 years of alcoholism.In 1987 an incident at work has given me mild PTSD and other things that people go through such as death of loved ones. Not that any of this is an excuse but I hope to explain why I am so sensitive to stressors such as low testosterone.
My make up is such that what may not effect one person has a harder effect on me so low T in others might be a bother but in myself, it can be devastating.

With this in mind it is a clear choice for me to do whatever I can to raise my odds of a successful treatment but at the same time, try and maintain a quality of life that is worth living.

I am not opposed to surgery and it is good to know doctors have gotten better at it. I also think the sleep apnea does not have to be an issue. At my biopsy I was deep asleep and they had no issues with me waking up or not breathing. Agreed that a biopsy is 15 minutes but the same monitoring of O2 and intubation of my airway ought to solve that problem. I also know being on my back is extremely painful but it is not life threatening-so I wake up in pain! I'm used to that, It's not like I,ll feel the pain while under.

Sorry for the rambling but thought I'd try and explain what and why's of my concerns.In any case nothing is going to happen until early Fall so the best I can do is lose more weight (I lost 20 plus pounds this year) get back to the gym which may open up again soon, stop the testosterone, eat healthy and carry on!

Thanks everyone for all the information and cheer leading

Glen

Hello again Paxton

Thanks for this .I needed a bit of good news and this helps.
I did get the impression that my RO was going with radiation. He does want me to get the prostate size down a bit.
I Am on my cell phone and will write more later.

Thanks

Glen Heinsohn

hi, theswan,

I had the surgery about eight years ago and came out mostly ok on all scores.

I think it a good idea to try to get your weight and fitness in shape before treatment. Will make the recovery much easier. The nurse told me after recovery she thought that's why my recovery was mostly a snap. Was back to office job within three weeks. The idea here is just do what you can--don't need to be in perfect shape and don't want to throw your back in the process of getting fit.

On the T -- I was on it, too, though after the surgery, not before, like you are. Any chance the doc can titrate your T shots down some, so you still have enough T for emotional stability but the lower T level will allow for reduction of prostate size some? Maybe cut the T injection dosage some -- my doc did this with me when my T level overshot normal range some. Or maybe try the androgen gels, which can also be changed up & down on dosage?

That T is quite the booster -- I know where you are coming from -- it's not our fault that it affects us that way, so I don't feel bad (self-blaming) about the effects off vs on. It is what it is.

Seems to be a heavy lift for you right now, but I'll bet you'll come through it just fine.

The good news is that after it's all done, you may be able to go back on the T, as many studies now seem to show it may be safe after PCa treatment, esp. with your apparent low-low intermediate PCa. Let me know if/when you need the references on this.

Keep us posted.

Robert

Glen, I had surgery a bit over 2 years ago. I’m an avid runner in pretty good physical shapes so I had zero complications and recovery was, I guess, pretty normal. It did take about 3 months for the new connection from the bladder to the urethra to heal up properly. I was passing blood whenever I tried running.

As for ED and incontinence, as you can read on these forums it’s pretty much a crapshoot. The advise is to get a surgeon who has done 1,000s of the the procedures but your mileage may vary. For me, ED was a side issue before the surgery and let’s just say that the procedure didn’t improve things. Things function and with a bit of chemical assistance things are more or less normal. Incontinence was a bigger problem and I was doing about 5-6 pads/day before I had the artificial urinary sphincter installed A year ago. I have no regrets about having that done.

Glen....I had single port robotic surgery last October. My gleason rating was 7 and I had 3 out of 12 samples positive. PSA was 4.9. Just had my 4th PSA post op test which came back again <0.01. I am totally continent now but it took about 10 months to get there and I need to admit, I was not prepared for the incontinent issues immediately post op. It was so bad, at least in my opinion, that I resorted to using a penile clamp for a few weeks which was a total plus for me....I could do what I wanted and just release it every several hours but as time went on it became unnecessary as did the pads. My surgeon was chief of urology at the hospital I used and also is a robotic surgery college instructor. Since I was in great physical shape at age 72 and weight was 155 he elected to do the single port robotic surgery. I went home the same evening and never had any discomfort at the two incisions which were very small. ED is a problem however, although it was a problem pre op also. Viagra and other erection medications have done nothing. Mainly very happy to be cancer free so far and have my life back. Good luck in making your decision.

Glen, I had DaVinci surgery 10 years ago. My uro/surgeon had only done about 50 procedures, so letting him work on me kind of flies in the face of everything you'll read on HW, but he had decades of surgery experience before transitioning to the DaVinci machine. All went very well, except for the ED part, but losing a nerve bundle and being on blood pressure meds and having Type 2 diabetes doesn't help. Anyway, I just found this entry that I put on Facebook after the prostatectomy. I had forgotten this, and it's still kind of surprising to read. I was Gleason 7 with quite a few positive cores and 65 years old at the time. I remember now that even my uro was kind of taken aback when I told him what I'd done. Here's what I wrote: "Just got home from 18 holes of golf at Petrifying Springs north of Kenosha, WI, with my 3 regular league partners. I sure didn't think I'd be back on the course just three and a half weeks after surgery, but it felt great! Thanks again to everyone who sent good wishes and prayers. They helped more than I can tell you." I had put a few pads in my bag and was probably wearing one, but the ones in the bag didn't get used. The surgery even improved my slice!!

Glen, I also have severe sleep apnea and discussed this prior to surgery. The anesthesiologist assured me that they can take care of that during the procedure, and it wasn't a problem. I also eventually developed afib, but have now had a cardiac ablation that seems to have corrected it. But, talk to your doc about the apnea. They can handle it. As for the afib, I imagine they would prefer that you be in sinus rhythm, but that may not even be necessary either.