Just got married in 2018 and my wife had been asking me to go to the doctor to have a PSA test done (due to me being 59) my argument was "honey, I'm fine and I don't have any issues". Well I finally agreed to go in about a year later 12/2019 and found out the my PSA was a whopping 98!! I was shocked to say the least. Here I am 60 now and never had a sick day in my life....how could this be??
Had a biopsy, bone and an MRI all done within weeks of each other and waited for the results.
Biopsy came back so I went in to get my results and asked the doc "give me the good, the bad and the ugly news. The doctor replied, "well I have no good news; you have advanced PC and I can't cure you"!!! Wow, those words was like a punch to the stomach!! He went on to say that I had advanced PC with a Gleason 7 stage T2c and that with a PSA number like that, I wasn't a good candidate for surgery because the tumor was too big!! Well after that gut punch, my wife began to cry and said how long does my husband have left?. After seeing my wife cry, he said that the cancer is local and hadn't spread to any of my bones and all the scans came back clear.
Wow.. I think that the fact that it hadn't spread and that all the scans were clear is some good news...right??? Cancer is a very scary word so before you drop a ton of bricks on someones head by telling a patient I have no good news and that I can't be cured give them a little ray of hope. My calls weren't being returned on time so we found a new doctor with more experience.
The new doctor started me on 50 mg Casodex after my initial DX for about 30 days and received my first shot of Lupron three months ago. My PSA went from 98 to 1.7 wow...great results!!
June 1st I will be getting my second shot which will be a six month shot instead of 3 months which is good because I won't have to come in so often.
Not sure what they will add to my treatment but boy am I happy right now!!!!
Received my second shot of Lupron this time I got the 6 month dose. I spiked a fever a few hours later and had the chills. I did call my doctor and he assured me that's not one of the side effects. I would appreciate any feed back if anyone else had the same issues.
Well I put on a lot of weight. Some from the shot but mostly due to the COVID-19 quarantined and lack of exercise.
Things are going well. My next meeting with the doctor should be in December. I plan on going to see him earlier around the 3 month mark just to make sure my PSA numbers are still dropping and that all my labs are good.
Will update around September.
After going to several doctors and two oncologist and about 4 doctors, I found one that was consistent with the treatment that he planned on doing. Right from the start, this doc wanted to do the ADT until the tumor shrunk and then he planned on removing it. As you know, a 98 PSA is pretty high and most of the doctors are baffled because I am still quite healthy except for the PC of course I don't have bone mets or anything else. Been on ADT for about 10 months I've gained weight, hot flashes, mood swings and grew some man boobs lol but with all of them, I still don't have ED and enjoy sex despite all of the docs telling me that I wouldn't. My PSA went down from 98 to 1.7 in 4 months and then two months later 1.2 Yaaaaaaay!! My MRI and bone scan was free of cancer but the doctor said, "lets strike while the iron is hot"!!
ADT for some of us is a way to shrink the tumor enough to do surgery so here I am. The decision was hard due to all the complications, leaking adult diapers pads etc. yuck BUT...I chose to live as long as I possible can so lets do this!!
I will have the Robotic surgery on 10/01/20 I will keep you all posted...take care and stay strong!!
I am a little late with my update but after my surgery all my pathology report came back and all my margin surgical margins were negative of cancer. :) God is good!!
Although ADT shrunk the tumor, I was happy to be done with that part of the treatment!!
Surgery- 10/01/20
Wearing urine leak pads but didn't have any leaks at all once the cath was removed.
When I had to go, I had to go!!!!!
3 months Jan. post op PSA <0
6 months April post op PSA<0
9 months July ?????????????? I will update
Feelin good, still working on my weight loss..
Libido going strong
ED getting better
Trying to quit smoking cigars...a work in progress :-
I want everyone to know, I'm feeling great!!
Update
About 7 months after my prostate surgery my numbers began to climb.
Went from
As I mentioned before, they started me on Lupron about one month pryor to radiation and I snuck in a quick PSA lab test to see where I was and it was 0.2.
Well I finished my radiation December 21 2021 right before Christmas.
Well Jan 2022..one month after radiation treatment, my PSA went down to a 0.1. Only one point but at least its going in the right direction.
No issues from the radiation or Lupron except for the hot flashes and very low libido,man boobs and of course 20 lbs heavier.
Next PSA in July
2019-psa 98
2021-post surgery psa <.0
7 months later 0.7 :(
2022 post radiation & Lupron 0.1 :)
I had radiation December 2021 along with ADT. I stopped through ADT about 12 months due to the harsh side effects. So far do good, still producing <0.1
Well after finished salvage radiation/ADT, my PC returned which was a bummer :( PSA went from <0.1 to 0.40
The started me on Erleda and Lupron now so let's see how this works. I asked them why take Lupron and Erleda both since they do the same thing? The doctor feels that the cancer is very aggressive because it kept coming back. I will update you in a month to see what my PSA will be. July next Lupron shot and Erleda 240 mg tab daily.
Approximately 2 years after radiation treatment my numbers began to rise again 0.48 :-( The doctor put me on Erleda,cassadex and Lupron but my blood pressure began to rise to a dangerous level so he took me off of it. I am only using Lupron shots and it brought my numbers down. I feel good and try ing to keep my weight down and hitting the gym.
Will's e-mail address is: debramiles1 AT yahoo.com (replace "AT" with "@")
