Quite simply you have now bought yourself some external beam radiation
(EBRT). They will radiate the prostate bed area along with bladder neck.
This is usually very effective in killing off whatever cancer cells remain.
You will probably have something like 5 weeks of radiation treatments. They
also might give you some Lupron to starve any additional PC cells floating
around.

My husband had his EBRT every morning before he went to work. It's not
painful it is just inconvenient to squeeze one more thing into his busy
schedule. Since he was one of the first patients in the morning he'd just
walk through the door and they would take him right back to the room. He'd
drop his pants and they would zap him. The whole process took less than 15
minutes. He did this Monday through Friday for 5 weeks. Then left for work
and worked a full day after each treatment.

Towards the end he was getting tired, a normal side-effect. He'd go to bed a
little earlier at night and never missed a chance for a nap on Saturday or
Sunday. The other side effect that happened was after the EBRT was finished.
He lost his pubic hair giving him what I called his new youthful appearance.
The hair grew right back.

Maybe you can speed things up by contacting a radiation-oncologist? Or would
a member of your doctor's staff do that for you? As you already know often
the hardest part is the waiting for treatment to begin.
Bev

Hi Raul...The question that you and your doctors need to answer is
whether your PCa is systemic or not.  The answer to that question will
define the treatment path that you will follow.  Your pre-surgical
stats (GS, PSA and TNM staging) along with blood tests like PAP, CGA,
CEA and NSE will help you answer the local / systemic question.  It
would probably be a good idea to bring an oncologist who specializes
in PCa on board to help with the decision making process...Best wishes
and good luck, Ron

hi raul - sorry to hear the rise in the psa.  unfortunately, psa is made
by prostate cells, so that indicates something is going on.  

as far as cases like this.  i know of one.  where the resection tissue
of the urethra had some pca on it.  it took five years, but his psa is
starting to climb.  his doctor told him that in all the times that he
has done this procedure with marginal tissue, his, was the first one
that went ahead and developed into more pca.   he is scheduled for
radiation treatments of the prostate bed in september.  the doctor was
very optimistic and that is what i'll pass on to you.

this event you have may be a setback, but you still have some good solid
proven treatments to kill the pca.  the waiting game is the hardest
part.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."

PC,

You may have recurrnet PCa.  I'd go so far and say you likely have recurrent
PCa.  However, so did I and so did many others in this NG.  Your doc will
probably want to radiate your prostate bed and bladder neck.  If this
doesn't work, in a year or so, he will want you on hormone treatment.  When
that fails, they'll go with chemo therapy.  By then, there is a real chance
that a cure will be developed.

Ciao Raul,

Do not be too concerned about hormone therapy.
It is unpleasant but not very bad.  Unless you take
hormones for a very long time, more than one year,
there should be little or no long term effect.  Many
people take it for several years and still have no
long term after effects.

There is increasing evidence that hormone therapy
makes radiation more effective.  Even if you just
take the hormone therapy for a few months, it may
add measurably to your chance for a cure.

Buona fortuna,

  Alan

March (April) May (June) July ?  If it is 5 when your doc gets back, that is a
doubling time of two months.  You will probably get a course of radiation.  My
first PSA after surgery was 12, so you are doing better than I.