Welcome, Ken, to the club no one wanted to join.

I got good new and bad news.  Well, you already know the bad news.  You have
prostate cancer and your life, as you knew it, changed.

The good news is at your age and Gleason, an RRP can possibly be a cure.
For a complete (albeit unqualified) prognosis, we'd need to see your PSA and
Stage scores.

More good news.... if you were 'in country', the Veteran's Administration
will likely pay a good chunk of your bill.  If you've been lurking, you've
already seen posts by Curtis.  I'm sure he'll jump in and tell you
everything you need to know about the VA, Vietnam, Agent Orange and PCa
treatment relief.

Re the pain in the kidneys, that would be unlikely for a Gleason of 6 and
"in the early stages" of cancer.  I suspect that is a different issue.

Good Morning Ken,

Welcome, pull up a chair.  This is a great group.

Nope, no low back pain here.   Good luck with your RRP; I went the
IMRT and Palladium seed route and am doing pretty good.  

Sounds like they found the cancer in time.   Again, good luck and
please let the newsgroup know how you're doing.

The kind of back pain you describe would not be caused by early prostate
cancer.  If you had advanced prostate cancer, it would hardly be
difficult for your urologist to diagnose, and he would not be scheduling
surgery in that case.  Mostly likely the back pain is caused by a disc
disorder or other arthritic problem in your lower back.   80 percent of
the population will experience such problems some time in life.  But it
is also possible you have some problem which might affect the surgery.
So you should be checking with your urologist about it.  That is the
place to go for such information rather than relying on what you learn here.

If your back pain is the normal kind described above, then it is
important to keep as active as possible under the circumstances.  Being
off your feet during and after the surgery could excacerbate it.  Also,
you aren't supposed to use the usual kinds of arthritis drugs for some
time before surgery because they could complicate clotting.  After
surgery, they will give you plenty of drugs which will help both with
postoperatire pain and with controlling any back pain.  But you should
be walking as much as you can tolerate.   I have a bad back, and that
was the one thing that worried me most about the surgery.  But I managed
to get through it without a bad back flareup.

Welcome to the group Ken.   I had RRP in 2003, out of the OR about 11:30
A.M., walked the first time about 9:30 A.M. the next morning (not far, but I
was able to get out of bed, stand, and walk some).  I went home the next day
at 10:00 A.M., so in my experience at least the RRP was not anywhere near as
bad as I thought it would be.  I was 56 at the time, overweight and not in
any kind of good physical condition.  Just take it slow.

I do not think the back pain has to do with the PCa.  You may want to see
your doctor about that to see if there is a disk problem or the like.  A lot
of people here will tell you that walking will be the best exercise, and the
back problem could complicate your recovery.  I would get that looked into
before the RRP if I were you.

Best of luck to you Ken.  Please keep us up on your progress, and do not be
afraid to ask any question here.  We are all in the same boat more or less,
and this forum exists to help people deal with the cancer and the after
effects of the treatment.

Thank you.
David S.

P.S.  I am a Vet too, but they sent me to Germany to type payrolls, so paper
cuts are the only military related injury I can claim.

<snip>

<snip>
As a part of the runup to my treatment regime (ADT & Rad), I had to
have a Thoraco-Lumbar Spine X-Ray to determine any undue reduction in
intervertebral height.

May not be applicable in your case, but just a thought.

-- Reader to complete...
-- Please reply to this ng as my email adress is fake:

-- Regards

-- CC

by sprains or strains - injuries to connective tissue joining
bones and/or muscles.  The pain can be very severe - usually
caused by inflammation - which is the body's way to tell you
to immobilize the joint so as not to increase the damage.

The bad news is that there is no treatment for the problem.

The good news is that it heals itself over time.  The best
preventive after that is gentle stretching every day to keep
the ligaments and muscles flexible so they don't tear when
subjected to quick motions.  You may also benefit from very
gentle stretching now - if you can do it without hurting yourself.
If it hurts, it's not good.

According to the same book, 10% of low back pains are caused
by more serious ailments like disk ruptures.  The bad news about
them is that they don't heal themselves.  The good news is that
they can _sometimes_ be treated successfully by surgery.

If you do consult a doctor about the back pain, I recommend that
you try every conservative strategy before agreeing to surgery.
Of the people I know who have had back surgery, some were helped
and some were hurt.  The surgeon should definitely know exactly
what your problem is before he cuts you, e.g., you have ruptured
disks in the 2nd-4th lumbar vertebrae, and he's going to clean
them up.  If he wants to do exploratory surgery, run like hell,
or at least run as fast as your aching back will allow.

Good luck.

   Alan