Terry
Allen and Karen live in California USA. He was 55 when he was diagnosed in August
2002. His initial PSA was 4.7 ng/ml and his Gleason Score was 3+4. He was staged
T1c and chose Surgery as his treatment. Here is his story:
In June 2002 my PSA moved to 3.5 ng/ml from the prior year's 1.2 ng/ml. My GP
referred me to a Urologist and by August 2002 my PSA was up to 4.7 ng/ml and a
biopsy was done. It was positive in 2 out of 8 cores and I was staged T1c.
Did
RP surgery in Sept 2002, pathology report knocked the tar out of me... Gleason
upgraded to 8... one positive lymph node and microscopic trace in my seminal vesicles.
PSA
stayed at 0.06 ng/ml until Feb 2004 when it rose to .17 ng/ml. I started hormone
therapy in March after doing bone scans, ct scans and MRI where nothing showed
up.
In
May 2004 did 30 IMRT treatments...PSA stayed at 0.05 ng/ml until Feb 2006 when
it rose to 0.12 ng/ml ... by April 2006 it was now 0.21 ng/ml. My doctor says
we will repeat PSA again in 60 days, then talk about some scans. We have not decided
on a number to restart hormones...I'm thinking between 1.0 - 2.0 assuming it continues
to rise...I'm hoping my doc is on board with this.
I
feel physically great but mentally well that is a different story...I'm going
to have to learn to live with PCa.
In
June 2006 PSA moved to 0.26 ng/ml from April's 0.21 ng/ml, in August PSA now at
0.31 ng/ml ,so it is moving slowly for now, will continue to monitor every 60
days. Not sure when I'll go onto ADT3.... thinking at some level above 1.0 ng/ml,
hopefully that may be many months yet.
In
Oct 2006 my PSA moved up again ...to 0.40, I consulted a new oncologist who agreed
with my prior doc that it was premature to start ADT at this PSA level.
I
was offered a chance to enroll in a Phase II Clinical Trial using high dose Calcitriol
and very high dose Naprosen (Aleve), each agent is thought to slow the PSa progression,
so hopefully the two together will work even better.
I
return for a battery of tests in early Jan, we'll see what happens.
Under
the Clinical Trial I started high doses of both Calcitriol and Naproxen sodium
in November 2006, my PSA had risen from 0.4 in mid Oct to 0.5 in November.
In
Jan my PSA was stil at 0.5. However, I started to experience bouts of extremely
painful abdominal cramping, and vomiting. My oncologist and regular doc didn't
think it was the trial drugs, but I decided to stop the trial.... all my symptoms
cleared!!
But
by Mar 1 2007 my PSA was now at 0.8. moving closer to the level that I want to
go onto hormones. I retested on May 2nd and my PSA had dropped to 0.7 so I will
retest in mid July.
Back
to feeling good physically.... mentally well.... that can be a little challenging..
Terry's
e-mail address is: terryamail-public@yahoo.com
