The "New" Prostate Cancer InfoLink Social Network
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Martin Blackwell
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- Glendale, California
- United States
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Active Surveillance
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Younger Men
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Biopsy and Other Tests
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Profile Information
- Have you been diagnosed with prostate cancer?
- no
- What brings you to the New Prostate Cancer InfoLink social network?
- Need to have a biopsy done
- Would you help us grow the network? Would you tell others about it?
- Sure
- About Me:
- I am 55 years old. My doctor has recommended a biopsy. I have no family history of cancer that i am aware of. So far i have had several PSAs over the past few months which started at about 3 and are now over 6. My latest DRE showed an "abnormality"
I don't know much about PC. I have suffered from depression for years and am worried about how what's coming will be affected by that.
Martin Blackwell's Blog
Biopsy Results
Dr. says BPH is my problem, since the biopsy report came back negative for cancer. I have a follow-up appointment in three months. I've been on Flomax for months with no effect, so i got a prescription for a different medication. I had a list of questions to ask my doctor if the results came back positive for cancer, but no questions at all if it came back negative.
Thanks to everyone here who has extended their hand in friendship, educated me, a… Continue
Posted on August 13, 2008 at 7:02pm — 6 Comments
My Biopsy
I was prescribed a Valium to take this morning, and a Vicadin to take before the biopsy. The biopsy was done with local anesthesia (Lanacaine).
So i had my biopsy a few hours ago. It was not painful at all. The first sample the doctor took made me jump a little, but that was mostly out of surprise. After that it was smoot… Continue
Posted on August 1, 2008 at 7:30pm —
My first steps
Posted on July 15, 2008 at 8:30pm — 5 Comments
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Comment Wall (37 comments)
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Just thought I would check in and see how you were doing. Did the new medication help with the BPH?
Mike
I hope you are doing well and have made a decision on your health issue. I responded to your request for information back in July and I am wondering how you are doing. I am fine and just finished an assignment I had in DC. I am back home in Florida doing a little work from home. I am retired but I wanted to stay involved in the job market. I am 5 years post LRP surgery and doing well. As I stated I still work and travel quite a bit. I am off on a two week international trip the end of the month, my third such trip this year. My wife and I are truly enjoying life and we pray so are you. Take care and stay in touch. Manny
Have you thought ahead to after August 1st? For example:
there has been so much progress in the last decade that in many ways PCa has typically become more of a chronic disease for which there are good treatments.
If I may make one other observation, if it comes to it, chose the treatment with the best track record for good outcomes if it is available (every case is different). I read at times of someone who puts his erection ahead of his life (I can understand :) ) or gives more weight to the annoying but usually temporary incontinence than one should. Those things (in my opinion) are secondary to whatver the "gold standard" is for a particular case.
I am 3-1/2 months post-op. My cointinence is improving swifty. ED is a frustration but I am working on it. I feel fine, had outstanding results with an unfortunately high Gleason and kept my priorities in the right order.
The very best to you
Steve
Steve
I just stumbled on your postings. Permit me to comment from the perspective of an individual who first had a rising PSA 10 years ago, had two negative biopsies, annual increases in PSA and a "spike last November. I am married to a physician who countered my fears, "cowardice" and wishful thinking by insisting on the earliest possible re-biospy which announced a high grade PCa. My wife practically shoved me into the OR and an RLRP because of my initial Gleason 8, upgraded to a Gleason 9 post-op. She saved my life. I am sure of it. One of my earlier negative biopsies was a horror show (this was before I had met my current wife) and I did not wish to repeat the experience. My wife assured me that there is no reason to go through a painful ---urologists like to use the word "discomfort" but let's call pain, pain!---biopsy, unless one might have cardio vascular issues or other comorbidity that increase the risk of general anesthesia. Anyway, she made sure I had the biopsy under a "general" and I didn't remember or feel a thing after they wheeled me into the biopsy room.
But Wait There's More!
Because I was "out" and the urologist could really have a go at me without me flopping around like Mel Gibson in "Braveheart"
he was able to do an especially thorough biopsy and harvest a shopping cart full of cores. Guess what, because of that they found a "tiny" (Good!) tumor of high grade (BAD) Gleason 9 cancer. This tiny tumor could easily have been missed if the urologist had taken lesser cores because of "discomfort" concerns.
Lesson: You the patient must be the advocate for your health and treatment. Fear is natural (tell me about it!) but delaying appropriate tests and treatment is playing Russian roulette.
I had a very nasty tumor but I think of it as catching a rattlesnake still in its shell and it's gone. Had I delayed half a year or a year I feel positive I would not have had the outstanding post-op results I had.
Fear and denial and procrastination would have gotten me had I not been so fortunate as to have a partner who would have none of it.
Steve
1. You absolutely were not "really stupid." You just didn't know. It would have been kind if the doctor could have managed to find at least 5 minutes to say to you, "Do you understand what I am telling you? Do you have any immediate questions?"
2. "Abnormality" in the chart could simply be a reference to the PSA test result. Call the doctor's office tomorrow and ask for the doctor to call you back because you have two questions:
The first question should be, "When you did the DRE on me, did I have any physical abnormality; was the DRE positive or negative?"
The second question (which you only need to ask if he tells you the DRE was positive) should be, "How positive? One lobe? Both lobes? What?"
The presence of a positive DRE "upstages" your cancer (if you have cancer) from clinical T1c disease to clinical T2 disease. To get an explanation of those terms, see the section on clinical staging on the main site.
Conversely, if you DID have a positive DRE, what did your doctor tell you he thought he could feel?
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