Down to decision time

So many men struggle with this. The good news is they can cure you.

Look at the list of potential side effects really really hard for both treatments.

Incontinence?
Radiation damage to your bladder:intestine?
No erection?

Imagine what life would be like *if* they came true.

Pick then jump in with both feet.

Radiation for me nearly 14 years ago. To this day no cancer and no negative side effects. All the plumbing works just fine. Never had an overnight catheter, no pads, and no ED meds, no hospital stay and no scars.

Clearly, every study shows more negative side effects with surgery than with radiation. So if you are concerned about treatment side effects then you choose radiation. Simple. With modern radiation therapy there is simply no need, nor advantage with surgery.

kurtzman did my seeds. does he still use cesium? that man is a rock star. do yourself a favor and just say hell no to surgery. good luck!

I had HDR Brachy back in April 2020 followed by 25 sessions of EBRT at UT Southwestern.....that was followed up with two years of ADT Lupron. I am Stage 3, Gleason 9 HIGH RISK localized. So far...so good being a survivor except I have suffered ED issues that I did not have prior to 2020. Many have not have this side effect from Brachy and Lupron. I came to terms being alive mattered more. I hope it comes back at some point in time but it hasn't yet.....other than that no other side effect.

I struggled with choosing my method going forward. I consulted with a Urologist surgeon, a RO using the "gold standard" 28 treatment schedule and a RO using the SBRT 5 treatment schedule over 2 weeks.

I was reluctant for the RP in my case.

The 28 day treatment, I didn't get a good vibe from the RO.

I did a whole lot of research, and scheduled a consultation with a RO at Buffet Cancer in Omaha NE, University of Nebraska Med Center.
The RO would not initially advise to push me one way or the other, rather he asked me what I wanted to achieve with the consultation, it was to go into depth the pros and cons of each procedure. went into depth to explain the 4 main options, results, side effects etc.
1st of all, when I went in, he had basically memorized my entire findings, like he was reading them off a teleprompter. Photographic memory type guy. Impressive.

I had full body bone scan with contrast, entire abdominal (some kind of CRT scan?? Forgot) with contrast.

After discussing pros and cons, and in my case the cancer was at the time confined to the prostate I was leaning toward the SBRT. They were using a Varian Machine (Edge?), which they make a mold of your lower body so each time you are there, you are in exactly the same position. Program the entire procedure into the PC, had a team of 4 folks in the control room with him.
For added protection, in advance he had a Urologist insert some material between my rectum and prostate, to do two things. (worst part of the process lol)
To immobilize the prostate, it actually floats to a degree, and to protect the rectum from potential radiation. It supposedly deteriorates after a few months.

This was two years ago. PSA dropped to 0.7 the 1st 6 months, 0.5 the next 2 sets of six months, 0.2 Monday, 2 years.

I did not want to deal with the RP possible side effects, since all the other scans came up clean, if the PSA jumps, I'll have time for subsequent treatments.

I would do it again, just be comfortable with your decision.

Highest Regards,
Bozz