Well fudge, new member, Gleason 9 (5+4)

congrats to you redwing, go the good news in the G9 club! long may it last, wish you well for the future.

An update on myself;
Day 14 from RP today, the nurse has called around to take the catheter out, what a non event that was, the first pad just got wet without me really knowing, the second one is still dry, just do the pelvic floor strain before I stand....all seems well, but very very early days.
I have re-installed my dignity today as well, finally (and hopefully) other people have stopped poking and do things to me.
I can also get blood to rush around down there if I think about her, resulting in tingling feelings, but thats all at this stage, anyway pleased that I can get blood to move around like that, has to be better than drugs I'm thinking.
I haven't seen my full path report after my operation yet, just a preliminary verbal from my Uro saying the margins well clear, organ confined, lymphs clear, SV clear, so I'm thinking really positive at the moment, PSA test in another month which no doubt will be a high anxiety moment.

Redwing,

 

I will take my free drink on the first night of our GFMPH cruise, you should be in the mood for a lot of celebrating by then.

 

Terry

Appleseed - hey Nick, done. It's an interesting list, but I have to admit I don't like to see new names on it!

Break60,

Are they doing any HT along with your adjuvant RT?

Break60,

Yeah, I've been there. While I wasn't a GS9 prior to surgery I chose surgery as the available option that didn't involve any time on hormones. Didn't work out for me either. I've described the surgery + adjuvant radiation + hormones as the "three scoop crap sandwich" and I am on record as regarding the hormones at the most flavorful scoop.

I allow myself to hope that after two years of ADT I will be done with it. But, we'll see...

Hi

good to know that...You are on.. "0"... many more down the road...

All the best..buddy

Redwing, Great news on your latest <0.1! Also good to hear that you like your new doc., that relationship is so important.

Best to you and a sincere wish for never ending <0's.....

Keep it going, Bob.

gunfighter - thanks, man! The support is appreciated.

I think we all feel that we have a tiger by the tail, and it's so helpful to hear encouragement in the battle. There's lots of grim stuff out there about this situation, but good stuff too. We do better by trying to focus on the good.

You have a long way to go, this is not the time to get upset about Gleason score. Based on personal experience and six years post operative you will have radiation and lupron without pain or symptoms. Good luck.

Hey, skiguy. Hang in there man. Stay with this forum, ask questions, take the responses for the well meaning experience-based support they're intended to be. As you can see from this really lengthy thread launched when I was diagnosed, I had input from a LOT of people. I really appreciated it! Probably typical of an an engineer, to cope with almost anything I have to slice it, analyze it, arrange the options, weigh the factors, argue with the doctors (they usually are good-humored about it once we understand one another).

I'm in a really good limbo right now. My PSA is undetectable, though that is expected while on HT after radiation therapy. It's wonderful that it has actually worked out that way, for sure. We just won't know for close to 3 years how durable this remission really is, until we take the chemical controls off of it and watch the response then. My diagnosis revealed a fairly bleak landscape, but there are many doing very well for a long time with worse numbers. We draw inspiration from them.

Oh, and this forum is not a random sample of the population in any way. There are tens of thousands of men who are diagnosed, treated, and move happily along with life. This forum tends to attract more difficult cases, because we're the ones still struggling to understand and cope with the situation, and often with some of the side effects of treatments or advancing disease.

I'd recommend starting a clear thread of your own, for you, where people can focus on your information and questions. It's harder to scrape things together from multiple threads.

Another thought - I had my 2nd opinion on biopsy slides from Epstein at Johns Hopkins. I'd recommend that immediately, your urologists office should be able to easily handle the whole thing; all you have to do is ask. It takes a few days to get the result. Your insurance may not pay for it, but it wasn't very expensive to have it don. The differences between type 4 and type 5 cells are important, and take very specialized pathologists to make the judgement calls. At a G8, you're already in the high-risk band usually grouped as G8-10.

Don't freak yourself out with web searching. Believe me I know there is a lot of scary stuff out there, but this field is advancing really rapidly. Lots of the dire studies are pretty old, and there are many options today unheard of even a few years ago.

Skiguy - nope, not from Redwing, MN. The name comes from a number of different tie-ins, not the least of which being a Redwing fan from living in the Detroit area for over 30 years. We moved to Tennessee a few years ago, but our hearts are still with the Redwings!