YANA - YOU ARE NOT ALONE NOW

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT SITE

EXPERIENCES : DISCUSSION FORUM : FOR THE WOMENFOLK : ABOUT US : UPDATE YOUR STORY : MAIL US : DONATIONS

YANANOW HOME PAGE : DON'T PANIC : GOOD NEWS! : DIAGNOSIS : SURVIVING : TREATMENT CHOICES : RESOURCES

BRONZE

Michael Mr lives in New York, USA. He was 36 when he was diagnosed on January 7,2007. His initial PSA 4.2 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 6 and he was staged T1c. His choice of treatment was Radical Prostatectomy. Here is his story:

 THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2010 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

Hello all, My name is Michael and I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer at the age of 36. I am a lucky man to have found a Dr. who did a PSA test at this young age and it saved my life. My symptoms were not the most common of the disease.

In April 2006, I was undergoing a troubles at home and some stress at work and began to lose weight. By July I had lost 30 lbs. going from 206 to 176 and began to get worried something was wrong, not a stressful person by nature and still eating a normal diet, this struck me as odd. In July, I also began to experience some forms of Erectile Dysfunction, which had never happened in my life before. I went to my Dr. and they did some blood work and a physical and concluded it was stress related and sent me to a Urologist for the ED, who did a DRE (normal) and concluded nothing wrong and stress in my relationship with my wife as the cause of the ED, take some Viagra and everything will be fine.

As I left the office that day, I was still in disbelief, knowing my self and body, I still didn't agree with the explanation. It was October at this point, I was down to 165, and didn't buy it. I called my friend who was older than I and asked him what he thought? He suggested I go to his Dr. I called for an appointment and got one for Jan. I continued to have ED and my weight stabilized around 160. Upon meeting the new Dr. he seemed very old school, lotsa questions, sat in his office for an hour just talking about symptoms and my life. He suggested we do some blood tests, as he sat at his desk, he started to check off what he wanted checked. When he got to PSA test he out loud said why not, shouldn't be a problem since you had a DRE normal but why not since we should check everything, even though you are young you never know what is going on inside of your body. I still remember the conversation.

Two days later he called me and said, everything looks good except your PSA is 4.2 which is considered elevated so I needed to go see a urologist he recommended. In Feb, I went to see the new urologist and he did a DRE and said every thing was fine, but still couldn't account for the high PSA. He wanted to do a biopsy and check out some tissue samples. He was fairly confident that cancer was not an issue, but he said you never know. He had worked at Sloan Kettering Hospital for 15 years and the youngest patient he had ever seen with cancer was 39. I had the biopsy done two weeks later, his initial feeling was that the prostate was inflamed when he looked at it and that was probably the cause of the PSA which had now risen to 5.4. A week later, I went to see him to get the results fairly confident I was fine, as soon as I saw him I knew it was cancer. He shook his head and said I cant believe it but you have prostate cancer.

The cancer was in 9 of 16 samples with a Gleason score of 6. I was in shock. My wife and I had become separated by this point and I sat there alone in disbelief. He wanted to do a Radical Prostatectomy right away after an MRI and a Bone Scan. Both tests were negative. He suggested I read Patrick Walsh's book to learn more about the disease and I did. After finishing the book, I asked myself why not go to Johns Hopkins if they are the best. I called an made and appt. with Dr. Alan Partin. I met with him and he agreed to surgery and I went with him. It was a four hour trip, but I felt better about going to the best.

I am now two weeks recovered from my surgery with good results. There was no cancer on the lymph nodes and it was contained to the prostate. I am up and around, driving, eating and somewhat normal considering surgery was two weeks ago. My insentience is already minimal and my cut is healed well.

When I was first diagnosed, I wanted to talk to someone my age to see what they went through and really couldn't find anyone my age. I want to make myself available to anyone my age who has questions and wants to talk about what they are going to experience. I take every opportunity to tell everyone to get a PSA test no matter what the age if they are not feeling well. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been saved by a Dr. who probably should have never of done the test.

Best of luck to all, I will keep you updated.

 

UPDATED

December 2007

 

 

Hello Everyone,

Here it is Seven months later and I am doing great. I Have had two PSA tests and both were 0. I have almost fully recovered from the side effects of the surgery. I have minimal incontinence, only very rare on a sneeze and a cough, I wear a ladies thin maxi for work and nothing when I am not. I still take Viagra and am almost as normal as I was before. Without it I am not as good, still able to get an erection just not as much staying power.

I am really glad I had the surgery and can say that so far I am cancer free. I have talked to a number of people from the board who have had questions about my expierence and am always open to talking to anyone who may need help.

Good Luck to all, I will keep you updated.

 

UPDATED

March 2009

 

 

Everything is well with me as far as the prostate goes, my PSA is still trace and I have no side effects anymore with leakage or erections, everything is back to normal with no meds.

I did have a heart attack out of the blue in February 2008 again age defying at 37 with no history of any issues, had a stent as my frontal artery was 100% blocked with no history of high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Probably the only 37 year old to have both things in a year, LOL,

But I feel and look great. I went to the doctor last month and have an elevated white blood cell count so it was back to an oncologist and some more testing on the way. He is trying to get me into a gene therapy study at Sloan Kettering to get for abnormalities.

Thanks for all of your hard work and help in helping others. It is always nice to get calls and emails for othes in need.

Thanks,
Michael