Greetings to all of you from a new member. I am 62 and post-RRP by twelve days, still tethered to my catheter for another few days. Looking forward to having it gone soon. My case was a little different. My internist did the DRE prior to the PSA and that caused a false rise from 2.2 to 3.2. He wanted to wait and watch but I insisted on seeing a urologist since there is a family history of PC. The urologist did a DRE unlike any I've ever had before! Good grief, I could feel it in my sinuses!
The DRE showed a slight enlargement but the PSA was back to 2.3. Time for a six-month pause. Another good PSA but the DRE caused him concern so in early 12/08, I had a biopsy with 5 out of 12+ cores showing adenocarcinoma with Gleason of 3+3=6. This urologist has an excellent reputation so I decided to go with what he preferred: RRP. He does DaVinci and lapr but prefers RRP for palpable detections so he has a better view of the situation.
Anyhow, to make a long story short, the surgery went well with full nerve-sparing on one side and partial on the other. Clear margins and a post-op Gleason of 3+2=5. I'm waiting to get the catheter removed to start checking out the "quality-of-life" issues. We'll see how it goes.
My take on this is to make sure you get both the PSA and DRE, just to be sure.
More soon...
GarthK