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David Whitehouse and Susan live in Hebron, Connecticut, USA. He was 46 when he was diagnosed on December 14, 2007. His initial PSA was 5.8 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 3+3=6 and he was staged T1c. He is undecided as to his choice of treatment. Here is his story.

I had my first PSA test as part of a routine physical in November of 2006 and the result was 7.5 ng/ml. DRE (Digital Rectal Examination) was negative so my Doctor scheduled a follow-up 3 months later and the value was 5.9 with a free PSA of 25%. I met with a urologist in September and my PSA had dropped to 5.8 but the free PSA was 10%. I had a biopsy done in December and it came back positive in 4/4 samples on the left side and 1/4 on the right (only 5% of that sample). My Gleason score was 3+3.

I'd been having some back pain so my doctor scheduled a bone scan. This scared me to death! I read all the research and concluded that the probability of finding something in the bone given my Gleason Scale and PSA was effectively zero but that still didn't help me sleep.

The good news is that I had the scan today and it was clear. I was so thankful that the Doctor reading the scan gave me the good news right there - even though the normal procedure was to send it to the referring doctor and to have him give me the news.

Anyway, I've been researching my options, changing my diet and rethinking my priorities. I'll meet with my Doctor this Friday and then plan to go to Sloan Kettering to discuss options.

I want to thank everyone on this site for sharing their stories. It's helped me a lot.

 

UPDATED

April 2008

 

 

After my diagnosis I read everything I could find and was torn between the various treatment options. I ruled out watchful waiting because of my age and the fact that they found cancer in 4/4 samples on the left side with 40% involvement.

Knowing that surgery was a strong possibility and that the skill of the surgeon is a critical factor, I researched surgeons and then met with Dr. Wagner of the Connecticut Surgical Group. Dr. Wagner was one of the first doctors to do Robotic Surgery and has done over 1,000 operations. After meeting with him I spoke to a number of his former patients and scheduled surgery for April 15.

At this point I hadn't ruled out radiation treatment which I found very attractive because of the lower incidence of initial side affects and the data showing that the effectiveness is similar to surgery. I did a lot of research into Brachytherapy, External Beam and Proton Beam treatments. However after visiting an external beam specialist at Yale and Dr. Anthony Zietman at Mass General I decided that Surgery was the best option for me. I liked the fact that they would have additional information from the pathology report and that the PSA should go to zero almost immediately. I also concluded from my research that there are many good options and that after you've done the research it's a personal decision - there is no one size fits all.

One thing I found very helpful was going to the USTOO support group meetings at Hartford Hospital I was able to meet and talk to people who have been through the surgery and talk to them about the surgery the recovery process. There were men who were diagnosed 15 years ago as well as people were diagnosed weeks earlier.

So, I'm set for Robotic Surgery on April 15th. I'll send an update after surgery.

 

UPDATED

May 2008

 

 

I had my surgery with Dr Wagner on April 15th and everything went very well. I arrived at the hospital at 9:30, dressed in my Johnny, had my vitals checked and the IV port connected and then waited. Time went by very slowly but at about 11:30 my wife and I were taken to the pre-surgery area where I answered a lot of questions from the Anesthesiologist's assistant and waited some more. I was then taken to the operating room and the next thing I remember I was in the recovery room and it was 3:00.

The pain wasn't too bad but I drifted in and out of sleep until I was taken to my room (a private room with a city view!) at about 5:00. My family came in to visit and I felt surprisingly good. By 8:30 I was walking the halls with help from an aid.

I didn't sleep much at night but had several popsicles and walked the halls a couple of more times. The next morning the resident came in a removed my drains (ouch!) and said I could go home after lunch.

I progressed steadily at home and was on a regular diet by Thursday evening. I was lucky because the weather was beautiful and I was able to spend a lot of time on our patio and walking around the yard. The hardest part was the catheter... I just couldn't get comfortable and only slept for a few hours at a time.

On Wednesday 4/23 I met with Dr Wagner and got good news about the pathology report... negative margins and no lymph node involvement. The Gleason scale was upgraded from 6 to 7 (3+4) but that's not unusual. The nurse took out the catheter (not as bad as I'd feared) and I went home feeling great!

I'm wearing a pad but so far there has been very little leakage. I'm hoping it's due to all of the Kegels I did before surgery but I've also heard that swelling from the catheter can reduce leakage for a few days.

During this time I was in touch with several YANA members by email and their encouragement was very helpful - Thanks!

For those of you who are trying to decide on a treatment or are preparing for surgery please feel free to contact me.

David's e-mail address is: davew175@yahoo.com