2Buk
Chuk and Jennifer live in California USA. He was 50 when he was diagnosed on February
16, 2007. His initial PSA was 4.8 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 3+3=6 and he was
staged T1c. His choice of treatment was HIFU. Here is his story, entitled How
I spent my Summer Vacation
During my annual physical at the end of 2006,
the PSA test results jumped from 2.8 to 4.8 in one year. Being 50 years old, my
doctor recommended a biopsy. In February of 2007, the biopsy found one core of
eight samples was cancerous with a Gleason score of 3+3. My local urologist highly
recommended surgery, and was ready to schedule an appointment for me right away.
I decided to do more investigations before making any decisions.
My father,
who had been treated for prostate cancer 20 years ago at age 58, suggested that
I go to one of the local prostate cancer support groups with him. The men were
very open and shared a number of lessons learned and provided encouragement to
the new comers, such as myself. At the end of this first session, a man gave an
overview of his HIFU treatment in the Dominican Republic. He had some issues with
the catheter but overall he was satisfied with the results. I'm pretty sure no
one in the room, including my father, had ever heard of HIFU. I then started to
investigate HIFU on my own. After doing on line research, I contacted USHIFU and
asked to be able to talk to other men that had undergone this treatment. I spoke
to a dozen guys, gathering information on their pre and post treatment and conditions.
I was convinced, even though my doctors weren't, that HIFU would be the best option
for me. See, my wife is 40 years old and we have two children, age 2 and 4. I
want to be active and have the least amount of side effects or at least be able
to minimize them. For an early stage, localized cancer, it appeared HIFU would
be the best option for me.
I had HIFU treatment in Mexico on Saturday,
June 16th, 2007. The hospital is small but clean and there was always someone
around that spoke English. To people from the US, this would look like a very
large clinic but to the locals, this hospital was where the "rich people" go.
My wife is an RN and she was very comfortable with staff and treatment I experienced
there. I arrived at the hospital at 11am and walked out around 6pm, a little dazed
but feeling little pain. I was not awake for the treatment, which took about 3
½ hours. I took Advil for the next week on a regular basis and this was all I
needed to handle the pain, which was mainly due to the catheter that is poking
out below the belly button.
We stayed in a local hotel with a view of
the beach and I tried to follow the recommendations for medications, drinking
lots of fluids, taking sitz baths, etc. I couldn't pass up the Mexican coffee
after dinner though. We toured around Puerto Vallarta on Sunday and I had the
catheter draining into a bag strapped on my leg. On Monday we flew home to California.
While the catheter was very uncomfortable, I was able to work and get around with
it for 17 days. I missed one day of work (Monday) while I was traveling back from
Mexico on Monday.
After going through this, I would recommend people to
stay home and really rest for the first week. I happen to work in an office and
was able to work from home as needed so I could continue working but I was still
very tired by the end of each day.
Within a month I was back to normal
activities, including swimming, golfing, and having intercourse. Everything is
functioning fine and I've not had problems with urinating, although when I need
to go, it is more urgent than it was before. It is rare that I need to get up
at night and go - no different than before the treatment. I now have a greater
appreciation for basic bodily functions, for sure.
My follow up PSA took
place 3 months after treatment and my PSA dropped to 1.1 from 6.0. At my six month
check up, my PSA dropped to 0.8. It will not go to zero because there is still
some small amount of tissue left, in order to protect the nerves and urinary tract.
Two other men that were treated on the same day as I was. One reported his PSA
to be down to 0.3 at three and six months and the other is at 1.0. In fact, the
high majority of the men treated by HIFU that I interviewed have PSA scores of
less than 1.0, which shows that HIFU is capable of getting the same results as
the other treatment options. The benefit is faster healing time and less long
term side effects.
The cost for my treatment was $23K US plus travel and
hotel for 4 nights (approx $1500). If you are considering this treatment, I highly
recommend that you contact people that have been through it to get the real facts
(both positive and negative) about their experience. I spoke to 12 men and a couple
of their wives before making the final decision about HIFU. All of them said they
would do it again, but there were a few that had some difficulties (i.e. blocked
catheter, urinary tract infection, which were temporary). Best to be prepared
for the worst and hope for the best, they say.
May 2009 update: My last
PSA test result was 1.1 (Dec 08). I've just gone in for my 2 year checkup and
should have results in a week. My doctor says the PSA can go up 2.0 from the Nadir
point, which for me was 0.6 at the 1 year mark. I have no negative side effects
from the HIFU treatment, but I will monitor the PSA level closely for the next
few years.
Later:
Latest
PSA result in May 2009 is 0.9 and next month will be my two year anniversary since
HIFU treatment. All is well.
Fear Nada,
2BukChuk
2Buk's e-mail
address is : buy4898@yahoo.com
