William
Earley and Terry live in Pennsylvania----America. He was 63 when he was diagnosed
in July 2009. His initial PSA was 4.3 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 7 and he was
staged T1c. He says his choice of treatment was "Open" by which it seems he means
RP (Radical Prostatectomy). Here is his story.
After 25 years of prostatitis,
acute and chronic, and summers spent with infections and allergies, I came to
expect an ache down there. After several PSA fluctuations between 3.5 and 4.5,
I underwent a biopsy and learned it was cancer.
Initially, I was told
it was a "mild" case! Later, I learned it was mild but larger than expected, moderate
size, and a cork screw formation, apparently very rare. . . it had been "caught"
in the seminal wall, very slight penetration. However, still penetration. So,
now I am waiting, my PSA sank to zero in twenty days and has remained there. My
urologist, also the surgeon, said we should observe until the very first level
of PSA appears, if it does. so I wait.
I would advise all the newly diagnosed
a few things----have a urologist perform the operation, if you chose that path,
who does tons of them, I am referencing thousands of these operations. Read all
you can, I read twenty books and piles of abstracts, papers, and journals. Be
prepared for anything and you will encounter people who will take care of that.
Patrick Walsh answers his own phone, the Anderson people will provide replies
to all questions, the Cleveland clinic folks will accommodate anything you truly
need, from time of operation to a modest and very nice cabin on the grounds---almost
all of the big hitters like Walsh, Klein, Kattan, Scardino, and others---this
is their life and I am grateful they are doing some many great things for people
they will never meet.
William's e-address is: bearley@bellatlantic.net
