One year update, actually 14 months.
date psa
July 06 1.3
sept 06 1.6
Jan 07 1.1
Brachetherapy 11/05
Everything is OK, still taking Flomax, once a day.
j.
> One year update, actually 14 months.
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> j.
I had to think about what you wrote here. For a moment I
read date=July, psa=061.3. Then I rearranged my head
and read it correctly.
I'm hoping that your PSA will continue to come down. In
my case, it bounced all around, staying often above 1.0
until at 18 months it fell to 0.5 and at two years 0.2,
where it has so far stayed for another year. Bounces like
yours (by definition any increase followed by a decrease
is called a bounce) are apparently pretty common for up
to three years and, surprisingly, they are often a very good
sign. People who fail brachytherapy usually have a decline
after treatment followed by a steady up. An up followed
by a down is usually very good.
The fact that you still need Flomax may indicate that you
are still suffering from inflammation in the prostate. I'm
not a doctor and this may be totally off base, but I'm
wondering if perhaps that inflammation is elevating your
PSA. If so, your brachytherapy may have had a greater
good effect on the cancer than your PSA numbers might
indicate.
Again I'll say I'm not a doctor and my advice may be worth
less than I'm charging your for it, but I wonder what would
happen both to your urinary symptoms and to your PSA
if you began using anti-inflammatories, perhaps some
moderate amounts of ibuprofen and/or turmeric.
Good luck.
Alan