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PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT SITE

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Danny Bogner and Patricia live in Big Bear California, USA. He was 61 when he was diagnosed on July 14, 2008. His initial PSA was 6.4 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 7 and although he says he was staged T2c, this seems to be the pathological staging, not the clinical staging which, it seems, would have been T1c. He is undecided as to his choice of treatment . Here is his story.

Hi. My name is Danny Bogner, I'm 61 as of last April 2008, live in the mountains of So. California and was diagnosed on 7/14/08 and am in the process of learning as much as possible about what treatment I want to do. The urologist wants to go in there and rip and tear, excuse the pun, but that's the way I have to deal with it. My PSA was at a low 3 last year ( April of 07) and spiked to a mid 6 this June, and I was advised by my GP family doctor. to see his urologist, that's when he scheduled the biopsy and that was done a week prior to July 14 '08.

For some reason and I don't understand why he,(urologist) says that if I do the seeds and radiation I WON'T be able to have the prostate removed thru surgery at a later date. I'm looking at either the seeds/radiation or proton beam therapy and as a last resort just removing the beast inside of me. I go in next Monday July 21'08 to do the bone scan and a CT scan of my internal organs to see if the cancer has spread to anything, then take a short time to make a decision, as I have a short window of opportunity to do something. Sometime between summer being over and ski season starting late in November.

Thanks SO MUCH for providing this web site and especially for the links to those that have already gone thru what I'm getting ready to experience. Lots of great info here.

Any thoughts about what treatment to do would be greatly appreciated, pro's and con's

 

UPDATED

August 2008

 

 

Hi, sorry I haven't updated my info, but I've been really busy. I had a meeting with the Dr. ( urologist) a couple of weeks ago and we discussed the options that I had and I have made a decision to do the radical prostatectomy. We talked about different radiation treatments and the doc basically told me I was too young at 61 to do radiation and have it not get all of the cancer. Another issue is that I live in a remote area and the closest hospital that does the radiation is about 60 miles down a windy mountain road. He is going to try to save the nerves that are important to us guys, but not going to risk saving them if they have the cancer.

I go in for surgery on October 1st, as he is booked up thru most of September. This doctor is the head of surgery at a very reputable hospital in San Bernardino Ca. and I have checked him out extensively and am confident he will take good care of me. I let him know that there is a short window of opportunity here, as late in September it will start cooling off to where I won't want to be out riding my dirt bikes, or go 4 wheeling in an old Ford Bronco that doesn't have doors/windows/roof, and then it will start to snow in the middle of November and I will want to start skiing. Ya know after going thru 4-11 month terms of Interferon therapy (a type of chemo) that quality of life is more important to me, and making the most out of every day is equally as important, so having fun is on the top of the food chain for me.

Danny Bogner
Danny's e-mail address is: bogshotrods@charter.net
Big Bear, California