THERE WAS NO RESPONSE TO AN UPDATE REMINDER IN 2014 SO THERE IS NO UPDATE.

I am not much of a writer and have never written any stories on web sites. With that said I felt I should relay my story, since this site helped me out a lot.

When I was in my early 40's, my father (67 years) was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I remember my mom calling me and thinking the worse that dad was dying. Boy I couldn't have been more wrong. Dad had prostate surgery, hit the ground running and is doing great at the age of 77.

Needless to say I started getting yearly Prostate check ups. Over the years my PSA went from 1 to 3.6, then in the spring of 2013, my PSA spiked to 6.8. My urologist said DRE was normal and suggested we watch PSA for three months and test it again. I agreed but deep down I knew I had PCa.

In September the PSA test showed 7.2. My urologist scheduled me for a biopsy and then the results came back. Test showed one out of twelve needles showed cancer and that needle was 80 percent. I had already did a lot of research over the summer and good heart to heart talks with my dad. I knew I was going to have surgery. I based this on my age (50) and that I wanted to remove the cancer not just treat it. With help of a survivor on this site, I found a very good surgeon in Portland, Oregon.

I had the surgery done in January of 2014. Everythng went very well and was out of Hospital in three days. My pathology report showed the cancer was confined to the Prostate and biopsies done on lymph nodes and margins were negative. The report did upgrade my tumor from a Gleason 6 to a 7.

Once home, I started doing all my exercises (walking, kegals....). After a week the catheter was removed, boy what a relief. I waited for leaking but it never happened. A few weeks later I still have no leaking and am increasing my workouts. As far as erections they have not come back yet. Doctor advised to use a penis pump and Cialis (never saw me doing this), to help with erections but also scar tissue.

In March I have my first checkup.

Bottom line I would do it again. I am young and want to see grand kids grow up and grow old with my wife of 29 years. I didn't want to miss the shot at getting the cancer out before it got out of the prostate.

This site and survivor's stories helped me deal with my PCa and give me peace of mind during a not so good time.

Mike

Mike's e-mail address is: mjkksmith AT ms.com (replace "AT" with "@") (but this e-mail address may no longer be valid)

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