Stan L and Lydia live in Arizona USA. He was 58 when he was diagnosed on June
16, 2009. His initial PSA was 12.5 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 3+3 and he was
staged T1c. His choice of treatment was Active Surveillance. Here is his story.
Starting around November of 2008, I got an acute prostate infection. I
have had these a number of times over the years and they have been treated successfully
with Doxycycline, Leviquin, or Cipro. This time, the antibiotics did not knock
it out. It was resistant to antibiotics that penetrate the prostate well and sensitive
to ones that do not.
A PSA reading of 13.2 (8% free) in early March and
12.5 (6.7% free) in late April caused concern that something besides prostatitis
might be going on. Ten biopsy samples were collected in early June 2009, and the
results came back as benign prostate tissue with chronic inflammation in all of
the samples. In one of the cores, less than 1 mm of Gleason's 3+3 cancer was found.
That original diagnosis was by Dianon Labs and a follow-up by Bostwick labs confirmed
the 3+3 cancer.
To rant a bit here... Should you be in a similar situation
with a small amount of low Gleason's score cancer found, be prepared for pressure
to treat immediately by doctors, family and friends, and even other PCa patients.
This is not bad if you yourself can't stand the thought of having some amount
of PCa. If you want to take some time to try to try to discover the risks of your
PCa or to defer treatment to when it is actually necessary, you will have to be
able to cope with this attitude from others. Some great sites like this one (YANANOW)
and some online support groups will help you with your decision to get more information
before rushing into a treatment.
A more recent positive development for
me is that my PSA at the end of September 2009 went down to 5.2. I take this to
mean that the prostatitis is better. Also, I visited Dr. Bahn in early October
for color doppler ultrasound. He found one lesion in the left base, not near a
margin. He indicated that I would be a good candidate for Active Surveillance.
I will follow up with him at regular intervals to watch the lesion, as well as
getting quarterly PSA analyses.
Stan's e-mail address is: azstan@gmail.com
