THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2016 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

First let me say thanks to all of you for your stories as they helped me in my decision making and also to alleviate my concerns. I was 58 years old when diagnosed. I wanted to share my story because it is a little different. In July of 2013, I had a TURP procedure to alleviate symptoms of BPH. Of course the material that is taken out of the procedure is biopsied. I was almost in shock when the doctor (over the phone) told me there was cancer present. The cancer was found in 30% of the material and was graded 7a. My staging would be 7b for this amount found. My wife and I met with my urologist and he discussed the options. He scared the hell out of me by talking about chemo as the first option. For some reason he gave me my options in reverse order in my opinion... :) I want to re-emphasize that it is important to take someone with you to listen to the options with you as the amount of information can be overwhelming. The treatment I chose was surgery because: 1. The doctor would know exactly the extent of the cancer 2. Surgery seemed to be the best solutions for a cure that I would be certain about. 3. I knew that If the surgery failed I could use radiation then under normal circumstances. Soon afterward I had a bone scan that was negative.

My recovery from the TURP procedure was not good. I bled for about a month and I was incontinent the entire three months leading up to the surgery. I think the bleeding was my fault as I may have tried to do too much too soon after the surgery. By the time my surgery was to take place I could barely urninate as the scar tissue had severely hampered my flow.

The next step would be to choose a surgeon that performed the laparoscopic robotic surgery. I felt that this was a more precise method of surgery and seemed to have a shorter recovery period. I had three friends that had prostate cancer and had good luck with a well known surgeon in the area. This surgeon had done well over 1500 of these procedures and was supposedly one of the best in the world at this procedure. Thus, I followed many of you who advised get the best you can! There were two slight drawbacks: 1. One, during my TURP procedure the surgeon had nicked my sphincter so I was incontinent the entire time waiting on my surgery. 2. My surgeon said I would have to wait 3 months to have my surgery to recover from the TURP procedure. :(

About three weeks before my surgery on Nov. 14 I met with my surgeon and I mentioned to him about my incontinence. He told me that I would be a candidate for the urethral sling procedure to be performed during the same operation as the prostatectomy. He said they had performed four of these (double) surgeries at the same time as the prostatectomy and had great results with incontinence issues. My insurance would pay for this because I was incontinent before my prostatectomy and not after like most men. This surgeon and another urologist in the same medical group had been trying to get the insurance companies to pay for the urethral sling procedure to reduce or eliminate incontinence after prostatectomies but had not convinced them to try this approach (both surgeries at the same time). So I helped by giving them more evidence to present to the insurance companies that this worked.

I was evaluated to see if the sling would be for me and it appeared I could have it done. Another urologist (the one who performed the sling procedure) also found while examining me the nick in my sphincter and a lot of scar tissue. I had been doing kegels consistently and he said my sphincter worked fine and he thought it was the scar tissue causing most of the incontinence. Anyways I was to have both surgeries during the same operation. Hopefully this would kill two birds with one stone so I was pleased to say the least.

I had my surgery Nov. 14. and the two surgeries lasted a total of 6 hours. Both surgeries went fine but my prostatectomy surgeon said he had to clear out a lot of scar tissue. I did the mandatory two weeks with the catheter with no problem and I didn't think it was too big a deal.

It has been over two months since my surgery and I am doing fine. I am wearing a thin pad daily and the incontinence seems to be getting better. I will be taking cialis for three months and so far no e.d. issues. The path report came back that the cancer was in both lobes but was contained. So my initial staging had not changed. I will get my first PSA; test soon and it will hopefully be good. I will update as soon as I get the results. God bless!

Hi again. I just wanted to correct one mistake and submit some information I did not have in my story that might help someone with a PSA; in the normal range. My staging after diagnosis was T1b not 7b as I stated in my story.

The other information I would like to share is my PSA; number and its movement. I'm sure most of us know that your PSA; can stay in the "acceptable" range of 0-4 or 0-2 and you could still have prostate cancer present. There was one sign that may have indicated cancer was present and I believe it is called PSA; doubling time. My PSA; went from 0-1 in a couple of years and then it jumped to 3.2 in one year then fell back to the pre-surgery 2.8.... My urologist at the time said told me I could have cancer and he would do a biopsy if I wanted to. However he did not push for a biopsy and since my PSA; at the time was within the normal range I chose not to have one. Thus, I could have found the cancer a year earlier I think.

Were I to do this over again, knowing what I know now, I would have asked for a re-test of my PSA; after three months when it jumped to 3.2. If my PSA; was still high (even though under the normal reading) I would have asked for a biopsy. Thus I waited for a year and if not for me having the TURP surgery I am not sure we would have found the cancer as soon as we did. My cancer was in both lobes and to me was fairly advanced with a normal PSA; reading. Thank goodness most prostate cancer is slow growing but I could have found it sooner were I to have known what I know now.

On the other hand, since I had TURP surgery previously, my surgeon told me that the TURP could have gotten all of the cancer and he asked me if I wanted to do a biopsy to see if cancer was present. What's a person to do!! I ended up not doing a biopsy and chose the surgery because I wanted my prostate removed since that seemed to be the best way to cure it to me and, more importantly, the amount found was fairly high (30%). However, it was possible the TURP could have gotten all of the cancer and should be considered. Thankfully I chose the correct route to take and I'm happy with the results so far.

I hope all of this makes sense and if you have any questions feel free to email me. God bless!

Thanks-Tim

Hi everyone,

Last week I had my first post-operative PSA; check and I'm happy to say that it was undetectable. ED and incontinence issues are mild and improving. The only leaks are caused by deep coughing and sneezing. I am looking forward to going pad-less some day again. Its wonderful to take a leak and finish within 30 seconds :). Life goes on! May you have a successful outcome in ur fight! God bless.

Hi everyone,

I had a minor setback recently. I developed an incisional/ventral hernia and had to have it repaired.Everything went fine and hopefully the repair will hold. I have one friend who also had to have a hernia repaired and there seems to be a possibility of that occurring. Keep the faith!!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update...Latest PSA is 0...still some light incontinence...not convinced anymore that the urethral sling worked :( We'll see...best to everyone and email me if you have questions!

God bless each of you!!

Tim

Hi,

I just wanted to write a quick update. My PSA is still zero and I still have light incontinence which is slowly improving. I have no issues with sexual function and actually it is better than before surgery. May God bless each of you in your struggle and keep the faith!

Tim's e-mail address is: tdmcski AT gmail.com (replace "AT" with "@")

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