Age and treatment

I've bee reading the posts on this forum for the past few weeks.  Am I wrong in thinking that most of the men taking part here are younger, say from 40 to 65, and everyone seems to be having surgery - daVinci or whatever.  All the problems of post-op deal with surgery.

I'm just wondering if there are older guys on this forum.  I turned 72 last March.  My PSA went up to 5.7, free PSA at 9% early in May.  I had a biopsy on May 16 (under complete anasthesia - I wasn't offered any alternative, and had an easy time of it) and 2 of 14 sections showed cancer and 2 were pre-cancerous.  I live in Florida and spent July and August traveling with my wife, visiting friends and relatives up North.  Came back in September and treatment started in October.

Urologist said I was on the cusp, age-wise, where they do not recommend surgery.  I opted for radiation.  This is not "seeds", but image guided radiation therapy.  I had 2 minor surgical procedures called "high dose radiation with boost" which were not very pleasant, but not the worst.  The plan is then for 25 sessions of radiation.  This involves my driving to the Oncology clinic, getting on the table under the "Trilogy" machine (a real Star Wars contraption) and getting the image guided radiation for less than 10 minutes.  Then I drive off.  Today I had my 15th treatment.  Ten more to go.  I see the Oncologist every Monday, and the Urologist every few weeks during the treatment.  The only problem with this method is that, although the Oncologist said the odds were overwhelmingly in my favor, they really won't know the real results for 6 months to a year after I'm finished.

Is anyone else out there using this method of PC treatment?  Looking to share experiences, and help others along if I can.  I'm certainly not an expert on radiation, but I have learned a few things.  Love to hear from you.

 

Hi Sluggo72,

I don't think we've welcomed you to the board yet so on behalf of my husband and I....WELCOME!

There does seem to be a lot of younger men on this forum but we've also seen older gentlemen such as yourself as well.  We were told that for older men, radiation is sometimes the best because many times their cancer is very, very slow growing and chances are that they will die of something else other than the prostate cancer.  Also, the surgery can be very hard on older men, especially if their not in very good shape.  For the younger men, surgery is many times recommended because their life expectancy is naturally longer. 

There is an another excellent prostate cancer website at www.yananow.net where men have wrote about their different kinds of treatments and are willing to answer your questions.  There are a lot of experiences with radiation treatment there.  It helped us and I'm betting it would help you to. 

Best of luck to you and yours,

Hey Jet,

There's a PCa fourm on WebMD where a few men had Proton. Maybe they'd be able to help you out.

Sluggo,
Gosh, it does seem we have a bit of a younger group. It wasn't intended that way. Wasn't intended to be mostly surgery either. It is rather odd isn't it?
Hang in a while anyway!

Swim

sounds like there so many treatments I was unaware of. Seems like the different methods all cater to different people and age groups, Im glad there so many options out there if I was ever to get this.

Indiana Univesity is in phase 3 trials of HFIU...check em out on their we site. Just google...it should come up. Several places across the country are now doing Proton Beam. Jacksonville FL has one of the newest sites.

Welcome Sluggo... I am prety new to this forum as well. As the information in my signature indicates I was notified of the diagnosis on 10/18/06. One thing I've learned for certain is that there are so many variables involved: Age, Gleason Score, PSA, etc, etc, etc. I have decided that I will do the DaVinci Robotic Laporascopic procedure unless or until I find out something better for my particular situation.

This is one journey we take that must be taken on our own. I only ask above for guidance that a) The cancer is removed completely, never to return, and b) I will continue to have a good quality of life as long as I live. I just seek to accept the consequences of any decision I make. Good luck to you.....

Jay

Sluggo,

I don't think this forum is for the younger crowd, but for anyone who has PC.  As you can see by my signature, my husband is 63 and there are husbands who are older than that.

Thought I would just post a word of encouragement to those who feel hopelessly lost with incontinence following prostatectomy. I had mine robotically removed on January 15th of this year. They also repaired a double hernia at the same time. Almost 5 hours on the operating table.

One week post op--- catheter removed and the dark slide into incontinence. I was almost total. I was wearing a diaper and a pad and going through 10 -12 heavy duty pads a day. I slid into a pretty depressed state convinced I would be like this forever. I was like an open faucet. Just constantly dripped and squirted.

My surgeon recommended that I see an Incontinence specialist at Univ. Of Pennsylvania, Dr. Diane Newman, also where I had had the operation done. Dr. Newman told me that I would get better and that made me feel a lot better. She connected electrodes to me and did bio feedback to make sure I was doing the Kegels correctly. I was doing pretty good but she showed me how to target the muscles for maximum effect.

I read everything I could on the internet, like I am sure you are doing. Try to forget that. Every one is different and you have to stay positive. There is one study on the internet that predicts your return to normal. Bunk. According to them I would be better in maybe a year and a half. Believe you can do it and DO YOUR KEGELS RELIGIOUSLY. Dr. Newman has me do 3 sets ( One Lying, one sitting, one standing) twice a day. Morning and night.

Each set consists of 10 reps of two second contractions then two seconds of rest. Do that 10 times. Then ten second contractions followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do that 10 times. Do each of those sets in the three positions. Once in the morning and once at night. Don't do more or any less.

I put a puppy pee pad on the floor in the bathroom and did my kegels standing over the pad. I would leak like there was no tomorrow. I was really bad for about 6 weeks. Then one morning I got up and noticed that I was dripping less. It gave new hope and I was encouraged to work even harder and do my exorcises stronger.

At about 8 weeks I noticed that I felt like I was leaking the same. Standing, walking, sneezing, coughing, but when I went to change the pad, I noticed the volume of urine was much Less. I went down to about 4-6 pads all in a bout two weeks.

A few Days ago I revisited Dr. Newman. She hooked me up again to the machine and the graphs showed that I had improved my muscle quality greatly. She estimates that I will be dry in another month. I started rating my days. A good day that showed improvement I called a "Plus Day" No improvement or backwards movement were minus days. I noticed that I was having more and more plus days although expect to have some minus days. Fatigue, excess liquid consumption etc can set you back, but keep going. The puppy pee pad is now dry when I do my kegels. It helps to keep your sense of humor and to commit to the exercises. I am happy to report that this was a ++ day. This is the first day that I have used only one pad, all day and I am just over 10 weeks post op.

So I know it gets you down. It goes to quality of life. It get better. Keep laughing at yourself, Embrace your situation, and do those exercises. There are better days to come. Good Luck.

This thread is TWELVE YEARS OLD!

Wow! I never seen a zombie thread that old come back up.

Should have started a new thread.

But, anyway, Welcome Maddog, I hope that you find answers and support here.