Thoughts

I seem to be late posting! Must learn not to think ahead but just post when the urge hits. As I said in my last post I made my decision to go with Dr. Chin. I had met with both Dr. Chin and Dr. Izawa and was impressed with both. Apparently if you kept score they are probably 1 and 2 as far as radical prostatectamys performed in Canada each year.

A bit of history. In Round 1 I was diagnosed very early. My PSA was only 1.84 with a Gleason score of 6. After consultations and deliberations I opted to have brachytherapy which surprised many individuals. As a young person many thought I was an ideal candidate for surgery however I was also an ideal candidate for brachy. The prostate was small, from the biopsy it appeared the cancer was localized, the Gleason score was low and I will admit it, the low incidence of side effects appealed to me.

The procedure went smoothly by all accounts. They keep you in the hospital for a short while - until you pee. I created a bit of excitement because they have you pee into what resembles a coffee filter in case you excrete one one of the radioactive pellets. In my case I did and this created a bit of excitement. Most of the nurses had never seen one and all had to have a gander. The hazardous waste squad arrived with their lead lined box to carry it away. Shortly after I was discharged and Bet and I headed for Guelph with me sitting on some bags of frozen peas to keep the swelling down. I also had some of the coffee filters to pee in and a special container to place pellets in in case I passed any more. Special mailing instructions as well.

Follow-up PSAs went according to expected with slight variations but all in the acceptably low category until mid 2008 when there was an escalation which caused some concern but the thought was that this could be the 'bump' and the next reading would be low. Unfortunately this was not the case and it has continued to rise, in fact doubling about every 6 months.

I had a biopsy performed in May of 2009 at Victoria Hospital by Dr. Izawa. You'll have to excuse me if I have some of the details incorrect but I believe 12 cores were taken with 9 having cancerous cells present in varying amounts. This procedure was not without moments of humour. After radiation the prostate gland takes on the characteristic of gristle in your favourite cut of beef making penetration by the biopsy needle somewhat difficult. Indeed in some cases the needle was being bent as Izawa tried to penetrate the gland.

Pathology reports indicated a Gleason score of 7, somewhat higher than the report of 2002. It is also located in all 4 quadrants of the gland. This has led to the speculation that this is a secondary invasion of cancer and not a remnant of the first go round. Doesn't matter, all I know is that it is there.

What lies ahead? I'm not sure, hopefully all will become clear after our trip to London on Wednesday. At some point I htink I will go public with my musings for any to read who wish. Men need to be more aware of this cancer which will afflict many of them. It is said that most men die with prostate cancer, not of it. I'm sure this is true but probably truer is that no man needs to die of it if they had proper testing.

Til I post again, slainte Ric