YANA - YOU ARE NOT ALONE NOW

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT SITE

BRONZE

Gene Grigsby and Kathy live in Washington State, USA . He was 59 when he was diagnosed on March 30, 2007. His initial PSA was 8.0 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 8 and he was staged T2c. His choice of treatment was radical prostatectomy . Here is his story.

After steady increases in PSA of 4.1, 5.0, and 8.0 I had my biopsy which came back as positive for prostate cancer.

I had surgery on May 2nd, 2007. My first post-surgery PSA test in August 2007 was 0.1. About a month later and not feeling real spiffy I had a CT scan and another PSA test. PSA had already elevated to 0.2 so the decision was made to commence hormone therapy and subsequent external beam radiation.

The radiation oncologist set me up for 39 treatments of the 3-C version which started in December 2007. After 17 treatments of this version and side affects of bleeding and some horrific internal convulsions when having a BM my RO switched me to IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy). The internal convulsions pretty much went away. I completed my IMRT in February 2008.

I felt pretty good the first couple months after completion of radiation but in May I started seeing some blood in my urine and I was having lower abdominal discomfort. The blood in the urine then elevated to blood clots that I managed to void over a period of about 36 hours. I already had an appointment set up with my Urologist who set me up for a cystoscopy. Well, they couldn't get the scope up my penis due to a "stricture" which the doc said was probably scar tissue from radiation. After he dilated my penis he was finally able to get the scope into my bladder. The result was that I had a bladder stone connected to an old suture. The following week I had the stone removed which turned out to be 2 bladder stones.

Leakage issues from surgery went away fairly rapidly and leakage after radiation went away fairly rapidly but since the stone removal in the latter part of June, I dribble all the time although not to bad when horizontal (sleeping) but when I'm up and about it's pretty much a steady dribble. When they removed the catheter after the stone removal they performed a "reverse flush" to determine how much fluid my bladder would hold. It's almost like a flapper valve that is stuck partially open. I go in next week (August 22nd) to try and determine what may be the cause of that; urethra issue, weak sphincter muscle, etc. Since leakage wasn't a major issue after surgery and radiation, I think it's something that happened during the bladder stone removal. Hope it's not the clip issue like I read about in the blog!

 

UPDATED

September 2008

 

 

I had my August 22nd appointment with my urologist and we discussed my leakage issue at length. He feels it is probably scar tissue from radiation but would like to have me do Urodynamic testing. I've got urodynamic test setup for Sep 18th and from the brochure the urologist provided it is a pretty intensive test.

I will also be getting my PSA test again so will have another update at that time.

 

UPDATED

December 2009

 

 

The I failed the urodynamic testing (which was not fun)miserably. This meant that my sphincter was not operating the way it should. The urologist stated we could try injections (used to be colligen) which I did and that didn't work. After consultation, it was decided that I could either have an artificial sphincter implanted or live with the incontinence.

After another month, I decided to go for the artifical sphincter. I had my surgery for the implant in Jan 2009 and after a 6 week healing period the artifical sphincter activated the end of February. What a relief ! After 2 years I was finally cancer free.

I have had two PSA tests since Feb and all under 0.100. The incontinence was collateral damage from the surgery, radiation, bladder stone removal, scar tissue, etc. I now only leak under a lot of pressure and if I happen to sit down in the wrong position.

Gene's e-mail address is given as genobeno@q.com