Hello everyone, my name is arun. I am from Mumbai, India. My fight with prostate cancer started in july 2017 when my son insisted me to have a full body checkup at a clinic nearby. When the reports of my full body checkup came everything looked fine except my PSA count. It was 7.5 at that time. My doctor asked me consult urologist to confirm whether it was prostate cancer or not.
As advised i consulted urologist. Initially kept me on medication for two months and told to get my PSA done after it. But after two months my PSA jumped to 9.50. After seeing the results he asked me to have a biopsy. My biopsy report showed cancer with gleason score 4+3=7 with no evidence of metastasis. After my biopsy report I went to TATA MEMORIAL hospital in mumbai which is the largest hospital for the treatment of cancer in India. There my PSA count increased to 10.95. At the hospital first CT scan was performed on me to check evidence of metastasis. Thankfully it did not show metastasis. Now MRI of pelvis was done.
TREATMENT PLAN
After seeing all the reports my doctor asked me to have my prostate removed through robotic surgery. Let me clear one thing that although i was 58 years old at that time, my physical health was very good. I guess cycling for 10 km everyday from last 30 years helped me in having the kind of health needed to undergo surgery. My doctor said that MRI scan does not show that your tumour has moved out of prostate, But he can tell this with 100 percent surity only after examining the prostate after surgery.
Hence my surgery was performed on 10 jan 2018. Surgery went well without any complications. The reports after surgery came on 30 jan. The contents of the report after surgery i am giving it below
FINAL HISTOPATHOLOGY REPORT 30-01-2018 Microscopic Description Radical Prostatectomy : Conventional prostatic adenocaricoma. Modified Gleason score 4+5=9. ISUP Grade group 5. Tumour occupies approximately 30% of the prostatic parenchyma. Perineural invasion is seen. Lymphovascular emboli are seen. Sections from apex shows tumour. Sections from base shows tumour. Extraprostatic extension is identified (non - focal). Tumour is seen involving the inked margin (non - limited, intraprostatic). Section from preprostatic fat is free of tumour . Bilateral seminal vesicles are free of tumour. Vas deferens cut margins are free of tumour. Lymph nodes: Right common iliac lymph node Five uninvolved lymph nodes (0/5); one of the node shows granuloma. Right external iliac lymph nodes Single reactive lymph node (0/1) Right obturator lymph node Two reactive lymph nodes (0/2) Left common iliac lymph node Unremarekable fibrofatty tissue. Left external iliac lymph nodes -Thirteen uninvolved lymph nodes (0/13). One of the node shows granuloma. Impression Radical Prostatectomy: Conventional prostatic adenocarcinoma. Modified Gleason score: 4+5=9 ISUP grade group 5. Lymph nodes are reactive.
After seeing the reports my doctor said that your gleason score has increased to 9 which is for agressive tumour. He said that since the tumour was also seen on the margins from where the prostate was cut, the possibility was very high that some of the cancer cells may still be present in your body. To remove these cancer cells radiation therapy needs to be taken. The radiation therapy started two months after surgery. My radiation therapy was done on TOMOTHERAPY, IMRT. The dose of radiation was 66Gy/33.
After completing radiation therapy in march 2018 my PSA count came 0.04. After this i have not needed any treatment for prostate cancer and my PSA count has continuously been in the range of 0.01 to 0.09. My latest PSA count was 0.06 on 13 july 2020.
SIDE EFFECTS
One common side effect of surgery is Urinary incontinence, which i am still experiencing but much less than what it was after getting surgery. I need to use one diaper everyday due to incontinence. Keigel exercise has helped a lot in improving incontinence. The more Kegel exercise you do the faster your incontinence will improve.
One more side effect of radiation was that of skin development in the urine passage due to which i had difficulty in urine flow. For this doctor advised to do self calibration by K90 catheter on every alternate days for first three months after radiation. Now i need to do it once in a week. After doing self calibration the urine flow stays normal.
Thats all from my side guys.
If you need any help from me you can mail me at abhinavipsp@gmail.com.
First of all extremely sorry for not providing any update from last 3 years, I was not getting any reminder mails from yana for updating my story so completely forgot about it. I received a mail yesterday only from yana to update my story so I am doing it now.
My current PSA level is 0.011 on 1 Feb 2024. Thankfully my PSA level are under control from last 3 year being constantly under 0.1 Initially I used to go for follow up appointments to Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai for checking my PSA levels every 3 months till November 2021. After that I used to go every 6 months till September 2023. Now my doctor at Tata Memorial Hospital has suggested me to visit after 1 year, so my next appointement will be on October 2024. I will let you know my next update on that day when I visit again.
The only side effects of treatment that i am facing is urinary incontinence. Also I need to do self catherization once in two week as a precaution as suggested by doctors.
You can contact me on myn email abhinavipsp@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Thanks
Arun's e-mail address is: abhinavipsp AT gmail.com (replace "AT" with "@")
