OT: How many guys here are dealing w/ prostate cancer?

I know this is a touchy subject but I'm hoping D will let it ride. Hardly a day goes by that you don't hear something on TV or read something in the news paper about breast or ovarian cancer but I rarely hear any talk about prostate or men's cancer. It is almost it is a taboo subject.

I didn't want to think about it until I got the diagnosis last October. Then came the wait to chose the mode of treatment. Please note, I am not trolling for sympathy here (I don't need or want it) I'm asking for information that may be helpful to me and the other men on this forum.

What I don't want to hear is "you are 76 so just wait it out, you will probably die of something else before you die of the cancer." That is just plain Bu****it. I think started by insurance companies. I have known three men who just waited it out and they all died a miserable death. I live in a 55+ gated community. Since my diagnosis I have found six other men here with PC. Two are in external beam radiation treatment now. What I am finding out it that if you are a male and in your mid to late 60s chances are you already have PC to some degree.

What I do want to know is, those of you who are or have dealt with this disease, what choice of treatment did you choose and how is /did it work for you?

My urologist recommended the book Prostate and Cancer by Sheldon Marks, M.D. I have the third edition (2003) and since it came out there are newer advances in radiation treatments which almost make surgery a thing of the past.

I have chosen to do High Dose Rate prostate Implants. It is like seed implants but the seeds do not stay in. I will do two sessions, 14 days apart in February.

Bill

Bill,

Can't offer much advice. Don't have the bid C, but been dealing with enlarged prostrate since mid-twenties. Not very common to get so early, I know, and the doc's are about as forthcoming on info as a tree stump. Has gotten a lot better since I dropped the smokes 7 years ago, I smoked a carton a week for over 15 years. Dropped the caffeine too, I lived on the crap 24/7. I'd get caffeine/nicotine migraines that'd kill a horse. I think I might have read Salk's book too, is it the one mostly about diet? Anyway, that is supposed to make huge difference as well, that is reducing the amount of saturated fats and the like from your diet. I've done this as well so hard to tell which of the three helped more, though I still have trouble if I lay into the coffee or soda too much. I probably should'a quit sex too(they say it has nothin' to do with it, but I wonder?), but I'll be damned if I'm gonna quit that too, after everything else. (haven't had a drink or drug since my 17th birthday either, turn 40 this spring, but that's a whole nuh'ther story) Spent my fair share of time worrying about it and more than a little trying to not. I've heard good things about the the seed therapy, best of luck!!

Hang tough,

Jim

BIll,
My dad went thru just over 2 years ago. HE was in the process of jumping hoops to get on the kidney transplant list when they found the PC. He had it taken care of surgically. I would recommend trying any other method first. IF you can live with incontinence for about 3 months, till you regain control, and pretty much terminal impotence, then surgey is the way to go. He's been cancer free for 2 years and 3 months now, and is getting closer to being on the transplant list again.( You have to be cancer free for 2 years) Anyway, he aint happy anymore, and he wasnt a very happy fellow before hand either.
I just had my first PSA test last month, so far so good :-)
Wish you the best.
Jim

I already had prostate cancer when I was 57. I had it taken out. My step father went undignosed,and it got into his bones. He died from being weak from kemo therapy. The radioactive seed implants are good for about 15 years,IIRC,but they can burn up lots of other tissue,including nerves nearby,and make you just as impotent as the surgery. There is a 50% chance of impotence from surgery.

A friend who is around your age had it. He had been getting the yearly tests done and when they figured it likely had started they just took it out and that was it. It's been a bit over a year now I think. I'm not aware of any other treatments after it was taken out. Apparently its one of the easier cancers to deal with, as long as they deal with it soon enough.

Co worker (48) was diagnosed with it and they operated and removed the entire prostrate almost a year ago now. He did have to retrain himself to hold back the urine, and he has a prescription to inject a needle into his business that enables him to get an erection, they had to play with the dosage the first time he tried it it lasted 4 hours, his partner thought maybe this wasn't so bad after all

They cut me for it in 2000. My dad died of it & my grandad died of it. A few months ago my stepdad died of it. Having watched those boys go down with it makes every day I live with my problems a blessing. I feel that I was lucky in as much that with the family history I was being checked early & it was found. I still feel content with my decision to have the thing removed. In recent times I know others that had the surgery, now days it's othorscopic (or what ever that word is) these dudes barely slow down & get it up in a matter of a few weeks. I'm alive & others are dead, that's the bottom line.

Paul

My dads enlarged prostate came back negaitve for cancer more than four times despite elevated PSAs (or whatever acronym for prostate cancer antibodies)
It was difficult for me to keep him focused on the reality that a prostate larger than a grapefruit would likely be cancer somewhere- negative results on a test reads like "it can be tested and found bad, but not be tested to be found good"

They finally did find <10% cancerous in their last biopsy, and the doctor chose to remove part of the prostate pretty much at his own discretion; this caused trouble.
Now dad suffers from the textbook side effects of such a procedure, and his heart conditions preclude use of that little blue pill. He does, however, have control over his urinary function again- he used to have only about 60 seconds warning before irresistable urgency.
He is , and rightly so, upset because various alternatives are now unavailable. I know the doctor- we served military together- and my dad had several months to review alternative treatments which he basically wasted, but on the other hand he was being given little or no psychological support.

After the fact it became his (now pre-empted) choice to try a radioactivity treatment using insertion of some small (grain of rice sized) radioactive pellets in close proximity to the cancer. The advantage of that treatment was lost because of the off-handed no-warning removal of part of the organ. Regular X-ray therapy has brought his cancer into remission according to his PSAs and any other tests they give him.
There are new treatment procedures and improvements to existing ones being developed every day. PC is very surviveable WHEN DETECTED EARLY which means we gotta take the tests.

I would be happy t go into more detail if you think it may help, but my dads experience has been over 5 years ago I think and we're just about obsolete in the state of the art today. This, happily, is good news!

re: JimBoggs experiences

Jim,
the happy fact is, as I recall, research indicated active sexlife actually made good prostate health more likely...

...like they say, use it or lose it, no?

-all jokes aside, CompuServe health news reported it several years ago, possibly even the late 80's-

regards
d



I probably should'a quit sex too(they say it has nothin' to do with it, but I wonder?), but I'll be damned if I'm gonna quit that too, after everything else. (haven't had a drink or drug since my 17th birthday either, turn 40 this spring, but that's a whole nuh'ther story) Spent my fair share of time worrying about it and more than a little trying to not. I've heard good things about the the seed therapy, best of luck!!

Hang tough,

Jim

You are quite young and they should treat at that age.

My dad was about that age when diagnosed, because my mom was a nursing
specialist at sloan kettering his treatment was comped. Although he did see a
hot shot urologist at sloan kettering (scardino) the only thing the hotshot
did was to concurr on the local urologists course of treatment which was radioactive
seed implants.

His PSA is down in the noise still and there are no side effects that I can tell.

My dad had BPH a few years before that but the tipoff for the cancer was that his
PSA spiked quite a bit. But he was still asymptomatic.

They say there is no hereditary basis but I get the prostate honk and the PSA test
every year even though I'm not 50 yet.

Mother had: ovarian, breast.
Father: prostate
Aunt: breast, lung
Grandfather: liver, pancreatic

Basically I figure I've got the 'ol bullseye on my back so I had better watch it
close.

Jim

Bill,
Not an easy thing to deal with. My diagnosis wss different than yours, four years ago. But scared the s#!^ out of me. Hope the "Night Monsters" stay away.

I was lucky enough to find a Yahoo group with my form of Cancer. (I tried four or five at the same time.) And, like machinist info, there was one that offered information at the professional level. As always, it's the moderators and leaders that drive the direction of the group.

If you want to live a little on the edge, you might look at
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/
since I spent 30+ years in the scientific business, I signed up. And will again when the time comes.

BTW, my dad was diagnosed about 20 years ago, prostate cancer. He's now 84, PCancer is the least of his problems.

A friend had aggressive PC, prognosis 4-6 months. Went in for radical surgery, added 5-10 years.

Another thing, if somebody wants to tell you a story, ask if it has a good ending. If NOT, tell them you don't want to hear about it. Bad endings don't improve your life your image of the future, or provide useful information.

Good luck,
Dave

Every day, ask yourself, "What's the most fun I can have today?"

Not sure if it was an age factor or whatever(I was 45 at the time of my surgery) but recovery was pretty smooth really. No incontanence to speak of. I say it that way as even yet the right yawn or good rip of gas & it will let me know that I better not do that. Not really a problem, just a reminder. As for the days following the surgery I think as I recall I walked 18 holes of golf a couple weeks after. The da&% ball still went in the pond & I can say my profanity suffered little from the surgery. As for sex, I'm thinking seriously about milling out & engraving a tombstone belt buckle. It would be fitting to have over such a dead thing as I'm hauling around. I'm with you, you got to get something done, my stepdad at the age of around 80 was told to just take some minimal treatment & like you say he would probably die of something else. It got him at the age of 88 this last fall. I'm still making little pieces of metal out of big ones, the refridgerator is full & the da&% ball is still going in the pond. That all works for me.

I had the seed method done about 2 years ago. My cancer was caught early, and it was slow growing. I forget my 'score' but it was low. Everything went pretty well. Some trouble urinating for a few weeks until I found the right position to stand. Hot baths helped a lot.

Two years later, my PSA is near zero. I have to urinate more often and holding is a problem if I gotta go, but it is minor. I have some E D issues, but the blue pill works good. It seems more related to my blood pressure, the lower it is, the better things work :-)

Dennis

Back in the '70s our plant supervisor felt out of sorts so went to the doc for a check-up: prostrate cancer. He only lasted a little over a year; the disease was too far advanced when discovered.

A brother developed prostate cancer and he had two options, neither of them very pleasant. If he opted for castration it would give him the longest life expectancy. That is what was done and he is still cancer-free some half-dozen years later.

Since then, his weight has about doubled and now his knees and back cannot stand the strain. The poor guy has suffered more than Job.

Fellows, make sure you get your annual physical examination. It could save your life.

Orrin

gwilson said:

I already had prostate cancer when I was 57. I had it taken out. My step father went undignosed,and it got into his bones. He died from being weak from kemo therapy. The radioactive seed implants are good for about 15 years,IIRC,but they can burn up lots of other tissue,including nerves nearby,and make you just as impotent as the surgery. There is a 50% chance of impotence from surgery.

Click to expand...

The seeds they use now half a half-life of days, or maybe hours. Radiation is undetectable after a few months. Done properly, they kill off the cancer completely, not just for 15 years. My urologist said his patients who choose the seeds have the highest cure rate and the fewest problems.

I had no impotence problems for over a year, but my blood pressure increased and some ED occurs, but it seems more related to the blood pressure than the surgery. My regular doctor added an alpha blocker to my medication, and things have improved a bunch. At any rate, Viagra has been effective when I need it, which has been maybe 50% of the time.

Dennis

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 1997. My PSA was 4.6 and I had a biopsy,
it showed a cancer, and the doctor was urgent to cut it out. The day after I got the news I had to work in California for a week. During this time my wife made arrangents for
me to have a second oppinion a Johns Hopkins Hospital. When the first hospital turned over the
microscope slides, they ammended their original diagnosis and then Hopkins also says I had no cancer. What a scare! I get annual check-ups at hopkins.
The point is this. For something as serious as cancer and a radical surgery GET A SECOND OPPINION AND CHECK-UPS.
Old Bill

Bill,

I'll PM or email you later today.

Bluegrass

My GP discovered it very early.
Confirmed by a specialist.
I went for the surgery, one time affair, opposed to radiation.
Only downside was a catheter for a week or two.
No incontinence afterward.

After moving up here, my new Doc. said it was the best choice.
( Other Docs my have a different opinion.)

Old Bill said:

The point is this. For something as serious as cancer and a radical surgery GET A SECOND OPPINION AND CHECK-UPS. Old Bill

Click to expand...

Well put !!!!!!!!

m1m