YANA - YOU ARE NOT ALONE NOW

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT SITE

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Gary Amato and Christine live in Ohio, USA. He was 42 when he was diagnosed on June 17, 1999. His initial PSA was 9.0 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 6 and he was staged T2bNO. His choice of treatment was radical prostatectomy. Here is his story.

Hello,

At the age of 42 (9 years ago), went to the doc for a complete physical to get a handle on cholesterol since my Dad (now 81)suffered his first heart attack at age of 52. during that visit, family doctor did a DRE (Digital Rectal Examination), said he felt something and sent me to urologist.

I had no symptoms and was in pretty good shape. more tests, and then wham, you have prostate cancer, of course I thought it was a death sentence. had surgery about eight weeks later and made a speedy recovery, actually doing stomach crunches after about 14 weeks. some early mild incontinence which normalized after about a year. sexual function was intermittent for the first almost 2 years, then with a hit of Viagra (now Levitra, sex life is back to normal, although a bit less frequent. PSA has always been less than 0.10.

Last PSA (May 30, '08) came back 0.20. Doctor says its probably lab margin of error, but he does want me to do another PSA in 6 months instead of the usual 1 year. I hope he's right, but I guess you can't worry too much about what may happen. cause any of us MAY get run over by a bus tomorrow, but we don't worry about that. right now I'm healthy, enjoying life. All we can do is hope.

 

UPDATED

October 2009

 

 

Been seeing my urologist every 6 months because after 9 years my PSA went from less than 0.10 to 0.20. Its been at 0.20 for the last 1½ years. My doctor says if it stays stable at 0.20, which he thinks it will, then it is not the cancer returning, but he wants to keep a bit of a closer eye on it.

Right now I'm not too worried about it, because it has been stable and life is good, so why stress over something that MAY or MAY NOT happen. Like I said before, any of us MAY get hit by a bus today, but we don't worry about that.

Gary's e-mail address is: plowboss@aol.com