I'd ask 'em for more ideas on determining whether it's localized, vacation
or no vacation, before I accepted additional treatment. Newer diagnostic
tools such as the combined CT/PET scan, for example, may miss small mets and
may not even work all that well with PC, but if it FINDS a met, that pretty
much rules out standard RT. Any PC test can produce false negatives, but if
one returns a positive for remote mets, I'd sure rethink that RT.

As for the vacation, I'd have to take my docs' word on the degree of
urgency, along with maybe a second or third opinion.

As for the med onc's opinion ... make sure s/he discusses its benefits and
SEs to the nth degree, and add your own research. That's serious stuff
compared to simple old crotch radiation.

I.P.

Dominic,

My RT history:

12/2000 -- My surgery
12/2001 -- First rise above virtually undetectable
03/2002 -- Second rise
05/2002 -- Third rise
Later that month -- Radiation treatment.

I think you have time to spend with your family.

This is really someting you have to explore with your doctors.  If you
aren't convinced by what they tell you, try to get other medical opinions.

I am not a doctor.  My uneducated guess is that since the initial PSA
after surgery was so high, and since the cancer extended right up to the
margin, it is reasonable to suppose that some cancer extended beyond the
margin and was not removed.   In that case, local radiation could cure
it.   On the other hand, the Gleason 8 increases the likelihood that the
cancer had already spread to distant sites.   If I were in your
situation and my doctors recommended radiation,  I would follow their
recommendations.

Don't know about NZ, but I've been to many other places in the world and
our TSA and
other place, if they even look in your carry on bag, have no problem
with any meds if
you have them in the original container with the prescrition and docs
name, 'scrip number, etc.
Tom

<snip>

DominicM

Just me, and from very-much layman's point fo view.

I'd get at it! I know that PCa is slow growing and all that jazz. But
to me,an engineer, time = spread. The quicker you get at it the less
chance it has spread. To me it's that simple.

I had a 0.24 reading 4 months post LRP and then a second at 5 months of
0.12. I  went immediately to prep for radiation. Turned out to be a
"false alarm" (I hope) since my PSA has been less than 0.1 ever since,
but I was ready and willing.

My approach is based on the fact that radiation is my last curative
option. I would have just the opposite approach should radiation fail
and I had to face hormone therapy. I would put that off until proof of
mets occurred and then would think long and hard about whether to have
the treatment at all. It's not curative, and it can have some ugly side
effects. We've all got to die someday. Quality of life, as opposed to
length of life, is most important to me. I like to be in the driver's
seat. Just Me!

Best of luck to you. Keep the faith!