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BRONZE

Bob Zupancic and Connie live in North Carolina, USA. He was 52 when he was diagnosed on April 19, 2007. His initial PSA was 3.1 ng/ml, his initial Gleason Score was 6 and he was staged T1c. He is undecided as to what treatment he should have. Here is his story:

THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2011 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

I was recently diagnosed (52 years old) with PC with a PSA of 3.1, Gleason score of 6 and 2 out 12 samples from a biopsy were positive. The biopsy was performed due to an increase in my PSA level over a two year period. I am undecided at this point as to what treatment to pursue and am investigating options.

 

UPDATED

July 2007

 

 

Well, after months of investigating my options and talking to surgeons, oncologists, etc. I opted for a robotic prostatectomy done by Dr. Patel of the Ohio State medical center. He has done over a 1,000 of these.

I had the surgery on July 2nd and was released from the Hospital the next day. I am now at home revovering nicely with only some slight pain in the stomach area and primarily around the sutures. I am yet to get the pathology report back. I have to say the whole procedure was fairly easy-of course I slept through the good parts but it was easier than I had exected. As others have commented on the forum, the biggest pain to me is the catheter, but I am learning to live with it and have scheduled to have it out within a week of surgery. More to come later...

 

UPDATED

August 2008

 

 

My surgery was one year ago in July. I have had four PSA tests after the surgery and the results were all less than .01. My plan calls for PSA checks every 6 months for a few more years then yearly-like taking the car in for a routine maintenance check- no big deal

My incontinence continued to improve after the surgery with minor set backs but today I feel I am 99.8% fully recovered relative to that. In my mind, Kegels are a must. I found that my improvement became stagnant when I stopped doing my Kegel exercises. As I completed more and more Kegels on a routine basis, my incontinence also decreased.

ED is another story. This takes some patience. It took approx. 3 months to be able to really have any real function which became somewhat frustrating but I kept thinking of the potential alternative without surgery-puts things in much better perspective. I saw continual improvement month by month. After starting on Cialis, I saw further improvement. Looking back over the past year and a half I have almost forgotten about the surgery and mending.

All-in-all things have gone pretty much how I expected and I often think about my decision and if it was the right one. I know it was! I got rid of the cancer and that was my number one goal.

 

UPDATED

December 2009

 

 

It has now been 2 ½ years and still have an undetectable PSA.

Everything else is great!