Alan,
In April 1992, I was like most of my male contemporaries, totally
oblivious of prostate cancer or its significance. I had just
experienced an episode of frequent nocturnal urination, which I
attributed to an infection. Then out of the blue, I was tested for PSA
and scheduled for a biopsy when this result came back abnormally high.
The positive diagnostic result hit me hard as all these events
developed rapidly and I was dreadfully unprepared to deal with the
disease. What follows is my "prostate cancer digest":

Dx: 5/92 at age 58, PSA 13.6 ng/ml(first PSA ever), Gleason 5 (3,2), 6
out of 6 positive biopsy cores, T2c, DRE +, Neg. Bone scan, Neg. CT
scan, Neg. bladder pyelogram, Neg. chest x-ray,

Tx: RP 6/92, Gleason 6 (4,2), T4, Bilateral SV +, positive margins,
tumor attached to rectum wall, Bilateral orchiectomy 9/92, PSA <0.2
ng/ml since 9/92, Last PSA 9/05, <0.03 ng/ml, DPC assay

I am doing well considering the alternative. Prolonged androgen
deprivation has taken its toll with many of the side effects that we
all know and detest. I have lymphedema on both legs from the removal of
LN during surgery. Worse on the right leg than the left. I have wrapped
them for years, but during AZ summers it is difficult to endure.

In all my surviving years and prostate cancer advocacy, I have known
many good men who prematurely died of prostate cancer. I often ask
myself -given the fact that I was told to get my things in order (and
I did)-, why am I still here? How lucky can I be? And that Alan is
the rest of the story about my prostate cancer situation.

BTW, I was very active on ascp and smpc newsgroups early after their
creation by Dr. Brad Hennenfent and others, but after getting hit with
tons of spam moved to other venues. Just recently I started reading
posts here and have posted a couple of times. There are some names here
that I recognize from my earlier participation. I was very glad to see
them again.

My very best regards,
RalphV
azustoo.org