THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2020 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

My PSA in August, 2012 was 3.5. Re-test in November, 2012 was 4.95. It was recommended that I follow-up with a urologist. I decided to go to the best possible location, and since I am near Johns Hopkins, called the Brady Urological Institute. I was assigned to Dr. Alan Partin, one of the leading Urologists in the prostate cancer field.

I have waded through the various options, have seen two other doctors, and have another appointment today with a third. The two doctors I have seen outside of Johns Hopkins seem to agree, that due to Hopkins pre-eminence in it's field, further re-assessment of the biopsy pathology would be pointless.

Although I have not come to a final decision, I have dropped any radiation therapy as an option, and am currently trying to decide between laparoscopy versus open prostatectomy. There seems to be some urologists that prefer the open option due to, supposedly, a better opportunity to assess the situation due to the nature of being able to see everything at once. Any additional information on this front would be highly appreciated.

I will update once I have more information and made a decision either way, then post updates regarding post-treatment side-effects and/or complications.

I decided on having the RRP procedure, and switched to the Director of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urological Surgery at Johns Hopkins. I asked whether surveillance was an option, and he said he would consider it based on the results of an MRI and a second biopsy. The MRI was pretty conclusive, with the radiologists able to estimate the size from the results, so the biopsy was pointless to do and cancelled. I currently have the RRP scheduled for August 5th.

It's still difficult to accept the fact that I am about to allow someone to essentially gut me like a fish over something that currently gives me no major or identifying symptoms. But when I consider the alternatives of the long-term health and mortality effects, I feel I am really left no choice but to capitulate to the inevitable: a surgical procedure that, although updated from time to time, has essentially been done for over a hundred years.

My decision was largely based on a doctor's warning that, should I move ahead with radiation option(s) first, that surgery afterward could be more difficult due to its after effects. I finally decided to go with the surgical option. I had the Robotic Laparoscopic Procedure done on August 5, 2013. Pathology results indicated that good margins all around, indicating that maybe all of the cancer was contained.

Urinary incontinence was a big problem. Six months later I was still not able to maintain control to any consistent degree. Then, for some reason, in January, 2014, everything seemed to fall into place. Incontinence problems started to resolve quickly, and by the 12 months point I had almost full control. I say almost as since then I've had issues from time to time that are confusing to correlate to anything. I continue to have some urinary leakage issues that seems dependent upon, but not limited to, diet and/or exercise. Yearly PSA results remain in the minuscule area, so essentially 0.

Note, emerging treatments may eventually eradicate the need for surgeries, like Immunotherapy. I wanted to try this route but it was in testing stages at the time I was diagnosed.

I do highly recommend that before using radiation as the first therapy that you understand what the radiation does to surrounding organs and how it may affect surgical options later down the road. This seems to be avoided in discussions, and I found this out from a urologist doctor friend who I highly respect.

Also, be aware that should you be diagnosed in your early years (40-55 or even less), there are chances of the cancer being more aggressive. Thus why you hear about people dying from this disease at a younger age. Best selling author Vince Flynn died within two years in June, 2013, just about 6 weeks before I had my surgery. Had they been testing maybe they could have caught it sooner.

The push to limit PSA testing to help diagnosis is confusing to me as I would never had been diagnosed at 51.

I still work as a contract software consultant. I also now work as a part-time ski instructor and take part in a yearly fund raising cycling event in the Vermont area.

Strider's e-mail address is: prostateyana AT aol.com (replace "AT" with "@")

NOTE: Strider has not updated his story for more than 15 months, so you may not receive any response from him.