Peter
Moore lives in Northern Territory, Australia. He was 43 when he was diagnosed
on January 9, 2007. His initial PSA was 7.2 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 3+3=6
and he was staged T1c. His choice of treatment was Radical Prostatectomy. Here
is his story.
In late 2003 my father aged 61 was diagnosed with prostate
cancer. When sharing the news with me he suggested my brothers and I get a PSA
check. My reading came back <0.01 and I was in the clear. I gave no further thought
to having any more PSA checks as I was only 40 years old.
During September
of 2005 while holidaying in Melbourne I had pain in my stomach, testicles and
vasdeferns that would come and go. I thought nothing of it until it got to the
stage that I could not walk without pain in my groin region. I visited a GP in
Melbourne who after hearing the systems diagnosed epididymoorchitis which is most
often caused by sexually transmitted pathogens such as Chlamydia trachomatis and
Neisseria gonorrhoea. I was given a script for antibiotics and was questioned
by the GP that either my wife or I had picked this up by sleeping with another
partner. This sent me into a spin as I had not slept with any one but my wife
in the last 18 years. He then inferred that my wife must have infected me. I plucked
up the courage to ask her and she said no. I believed her and still do to this
day.
The treatment of antibiotics did not work the pain was still there
so the GP repeated the antibiotics treatment. On arriving back in Darwin in October
2005 the pain was there but not as bad so I thought all was good. During the course
of the rest of 2005 the pain came and went so did another 2 courses of antibiotics.
My local GP said that I must be getting reinfected from my wife all the time.
She must be sleeping around on me. This talk was really messing with my head and
my trust in my wife. All those antibiotics all the talk about my wife cheating
on me took its toll. Our marriage with 4 young children began to fall apart and
during Jan 2006 we separated finally divorcing in late 2007. Lots of other factors
were involved in our separation but the constant questioning of my wife's infidelity
by doctors assisted the process.
I questioned my local GP in late 2005
whether the pain was associated with prostate cancer and since my urine flow was
normal no pain on urination and no bladder problems we dismissed this as a cause.
(I was later to realise that I did not display any of the classical prostate symptoms
that I was supposed to).
During 2006 the pain would come and go but was
more severe in the lower stomach and bowel region. I had great difficulty sitting
especially when driving my car. My GP sent me off to have all sorts of blood tests
and scans. All came back clear.
With a dull aching pain coming and going
I asked for a PSA check on 16th September 2006 when doing my annual men's health
check up. I had a phone call two days later from the doctor's surgery asking me
to come back in and see my GP. My PSA reading was 7.2. He said not to be alarmed
as I was too young (42) for prostate cancer. The reading was being caused by immflamation
from epididymoorchitis and my wife must still be infecting me even though we had
separated and had not had sex together for over 10 months. Another course of antibiotics
was prescribed and another PSA check in 4 weeks was arranged to confirm that the
PSA level would decrease significantly. We also decided to get a referral to a
Urologist just to get a second opinion. The visiting Urologist from Adelaide was
going to be in Darwin in late October. I managed to get in to see him even though
he had a full caseload through constant ringing up to get an appointment the receptionist
must of finally got sick of me and gave me an appointment to get me off her back.
. If I had not it got this appointment I would have had to wait till February
2007.
On 28th October my PSA reading was 6.6. The antibiotics were not
working. I saw the visiting Urologist and he suggested we try and even stronger
antibiotic because my latest urine tests showed inflammatory cells in my urine.
If this failed to decrease the PSA level then I would have to have a prostate
biopsy. I had an internal examination of the prostate and all was good he could
not feel any lumps bumps or any thing out of place to suggest cancer.
Another
PSA reading was done in the second week in December and the reading was still
up 7.0 In early January 2007 I under went a prostate biopsy that showed evidence
of prostate cancer in the left side cores. 3+3 Gleason score. During the next
two weeks I underwent Staging CT and bone scans. Waiting for the phone call from
the urologist in Adelaide was so slow and painful. What if it had spread????????
The
scans showed that all was clear. What a relief. I did not have lymphadenopathy
or metastatic disease. I spent over an hour on the phone with my Urologist discussing
treatment options. He arranged for reading material to be posted to me and I spent
the next week reading every article on the WWW about prostate cancer. A week later
on our next phone conversation we considered surgery the best option based on
my age and family history. Complications with surgery where discussed but looking
back I did not register any of this at the time.. My brain was going a hundred
miles an hour just thinking about cancer.
A week later I was 3,000km from
home in a city I did not know at a hospital for old men (I am still young I thought)
having surgery. It was all happening so fast. The day before the operation I visited
a continence nurse and it was only then that the whole concept of having cancer
sank in. She showed charts of the operation and went through quite graphically
the potential side effects of the surgery. What if I had to wear nappies for the
rest of my life for incontinence? What were these Teds she kept talking about?
(Male version of pads.) Would my penis every go erect again? Does the nerve sparing
section of the operation really work? Surely I would not need an erection pump?
Would I ever be able to have sex again? How would it feel having a plastic tube
coming from my bladder out through my penis after the operation? Won't ejaculating
sperm into my bladder after orgasm feel weird? Would I really need to do all of
those pelvic floor exercises? Surely I won't have to wear medical stockings on
the plane home to avoid blood clots?
On 8th February 2007 I under went
my surgery. The surgery lasted for over 4 hours. Yes I did have a tube coming
out of my penis and urine flowed into a bag. There was also another tube from
the surgery site draining fluid and blood from around the prostate site. Thank
god for self administered morphine in the drip. The only problem it would not
come out fast enough to deaden the pain. My urologist reported to me once I woke
from the anaesthetic in high dependency care that all went well. We believed all
cancer had been removed and the biopsy report in a few days time would tell more.
The biopsy report came back with an upgraded Gleeson score from 3+3=6 to 3+4=7
and my diagnosis went from T1c to T2b prostate cancer. My PSA reading came in
at <0.01
I was constantly busy doing my pelvic floor exercises even though
the pain was high. There was no way I was going to be wearing a nappy home. Lots
of Teds were brought and used but as time went on they too were not needed. I
stayed in hospital for 7 days then in a motel room for a further 7 days till I
was allowed to fly back home. Yes I did wear the stockings home on the plane and
yes I made a dashing figure in my shorts with my stockings underneath shuffling
throughout the airport and boarding the plane. What if they beeped when I went
through security?
With the months that followed the dull ache in my lower
stomach region that I had had since mid 2005 had finally gone. My continence was
good but I did have a lot of bowel motion problems. This took nearly 6 months
to come good after the surgery. I was having my PSA readings done every 3 months
and in April, July, October 2007 they all came back <0.01.
During late
October in 2007 I started to get a dull aching pain again in my lower abdomen.
I thought nothing of it as my cancer was all removed during surgery. My latest
PSA in January 2008 has come in at 0.1. Why had it risen? What was going on? My
urologist talked with me that there could be the possibility of the cancer regrowing
in the place where the prostate was removed in my abdomen. I had never even considered
that the cancer might return. It was only after going home and reading up about
cancer return rates following surgery did it sink in that surgery was not a 100%
cure. My urologist had probably told me about this before the operation but I
must have blanked it out, selective cancer hearing in place.
Currently
I am waiting until my next PSA check in mid April 2008 to determine whether the
PSA level has remained at 0.1 or whether it has increased. The rate of increase
will then determine what treatment if any will be required after April.
Peter's
e-mail address is: pmfa@bigpond.com
