On October 1, Jerry wrote:

Is Jerry's medic a urologist?

A PSA of 10 is dangerous! Get thee to a medical oncologist, a cancer
specialist, who is trained in tx of PCa!

Sitting around watching one's PSA rise to 10 is little short of suicidal.

See the website of the Prostate Cancer Research Institute at
http://prostate-cancer.org/index.html
and learn what the medic is not saying -- or, more likely, does not know.

Regards,

Steve J

"Flagrantly, we docs ignore the declaration of biology. We do this out
of ignorance, greed or both. The prime directive of the physician, the
real physician, is patient outcome, & not physician income (or ego)."
-- Stephen B. Strum, MD

Oops, I think that's a bounce! How many months out are you? (I'm sorry I
can't remember when you had brachy.) Bounces are common but my hubby never
saw one, probably happened between testings.
Bev

This is very interesting.  Please share more.

When were you treated and what did they do?   Also what were your stats
going in?

There's some info on the web that younger men, who have more modern
treatment, are seeing higher PSA's during the bounce period, which is
very roughly 18-24 months after seeding.

In addition, the higher bounces "seem to" correlate with better long
term outcomes.  None of this is "solid" but that's the nature of
science,  as events change, it gets harder to tease information out of
the data.

How are you doing otherwise?   Urinary symptoms, ED? Anything else?  I
don't want to bias your thinking but at the start of the 18-24 month
period, I noticed a slight upswing of urinary symptoms, a little more
stinging and burning, some difficulty starting the stream.   That's
fading now.

On the other hand, erections are getting firmer and lasting slightly
longer.  These are serviceable without Vitamin-V but it takes a lot of
thinking fun thoughts and manual effort to get started.

One thing that's helped is a naked woman stretched out,  give her a
backrub starting at the muscles along side the spine.  Using a massage
lotion or just olive oil, work the lower back, then move up and across
in sweeping motions.

Do it in phases, fingertips together like a cat's paws walking up and
down her back; next, palms open and rubbing slow.  Switch to
fingernails lightly scratching the length of her back.

Pinch the muscles at her shoulders, knead them slow, and move up,
fingertips again on her temples and scalp.  Press with your fingertips.

Spend 5 minutes on each phase, 30 minutes, maybe 40 total.  If she's
making interesting sounds.  Turn her over and kiss her nipples.  

-kh

Jerry,

I am not an expert on brachy, but....

Based on a PSA 5, brachy in November, a PSA 3.1 in February and a 1.3 in
June, I would view a 1.6 with some guarded anticipation.  I've heard of
"bounces" in brachy aftermath, but you may be experiencing a pattern
indicating brachy failure.  Unfortunately, you may not be able to make such
an assessment based on so short a history.  Maybe your doc was merely
telling you that, if it did rise, it would not give you sufficient evidence
to take any immediate action on it.

But, I do know enough about treatments that waiting for it to go up to 10 is
only legal in Oregon.

I had HDR brachytherapy and my PSA bounced around a lot.
The first reading after Lupron wore off was .8.  Then it went
down, then up, then down, then up, about 3 times total.  My
high point was 1.8, my most recent was .25.

As others have said, I would be concerned if it got near 10,
but I agree with you that you shouldn't worry now.  There's
no point.  The odds are good that you're seeing a little
bounce.  My understanding is that bounces into the 2+
range are common.  The highest bounce recorded that
I could find was around 15 - but that was exceptional.

Good luck.

   Alan

OK

Further data,

Brachetherapy in late Nov, 2005.

I am still taking Flo-Max, once a day.  If I miss a day, urination
becomes somewhat painful.

no problem sexually, on orgasm, semen does not make it out, comes out
during after sex urination.

I bicycle a lot, switched to a recumbent years ago due to prostate and
penile numbness.  I have been going to the hotter than hell hundred bike
ride for about 16 years.

Did not finish this year due to equipment problems and subsequent wreck.

Have noticed this Summer that riding a wedgie, a regular bike, does not
cause the same discomfort as before.

I am 63 years old.

j.

what I meannt was that I was not going to obsess about the psa values,
minor changes up and down could be due to many factors, including
instrumentation.

From what I have read, this analysis is not very precise, there is
variation between laboratories and between instrumentation.

Hopefully, a more precise analytical procedure will be developed over time.

jerry

PS, I used to be an analytical chemist.