Yeah......Anyway, you may be starting off the year in the best light ever.
I have been through the "news" and admit that was not easy, but the
knowledge of the problem, the diagnosis, and surgery are the best news you
have and a great route for your new year and future.
Walk now, and during your healing.  Practice kiegels......stop and start.
Walking helped me a lot!  Good Wishes, and the best to you and your family
and friends.  John Loomis

It's been pretty rough on the membership chairman too.  First you're in,
then you're out....  I'm glad we went from wood plaques to plastic name
plates.

Enjoy the rest of 2003.  There is really no need to think about it until
January 6.

hi rus - boy, what you said is about the way i felt.  i got the call
about my  elevated psa and it was 5.79.  and as you know,  a prostate
infection could do that as well as BPH.  
well, i have had prostate infections and i was having BPH symptoms, so i
explained it away, because they put me on an antibiotic for two weeks
and then pull blood again.  

when they pulled the blood, it was 4.79, a whole point.  ok - that is
good - but they still wanted to send you over to urology clinic at the
hospital.  that's fine.  i still felt that i had a reasonable
explanation for why things were happening like they were.  sure, my dad
had prostate cancer, but he was in his 80's when he was dx'ed.  i'm in
my 50's.  i've got at least at 20 years before i have to worry about
that.  

well, the surgeon looked my records over and said, "i'm going to tell
you right now, that you got a 25% chance of prostate cancer, but let's
concentrate on the chance of the 75% that you don't"  well, the only
number i was concerned with was the 25%.   he said that they would pull
the blood and if, it was, 3.999999999999, that would not do a biopsy,
but if it was 4.00000000, then they would.  results came back at 6.25.  

well, they did the biopsy and at the time, it showed i had BPH and
prostate stones.   hey, that's a good sign, in the fact, i can explained
it to myself as to why i had the elevated psa level.  it still could be
an infection.  i had a good feeling when i left the hospital that they
found it and that was all it was.

then the results came back.  prostate cancer.  3 + 3, stage T1c.   now,
what do i do.
and that is where you are at now.  

the reason i share this with you is to say, i've been there, done that.
i've found this boat that we are in holds a lot more people that one
would think.  

research and explore your options,  it is not the end of the world and
you have a life after all of this is done and over with.  right now, it
looks like a mountain,  but later, it will look like a speed bump.

if, you have any questions, let me know.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional

Hi, Rus....

Sorry for your news, but I'm here to tell ya, it's not the end of the world.
You've caught this early, and chances are you will be around to celebrate
*many* more new years!  There's a good reason to celebrate!!

Try to focus on the holidays... and your friends and family... and keep your
mind off January 7.  It will not be nearly as bad as you might imagine it to
be... I'm 13 months post-op and feel great!!

Take care....
MikeH

This will sound strange Rus, but in some ways it may be good
that you got this diagnosis now.

According to Walsh's book, and other sources too, prostate
cancer is badly underdiagnosed.  The urologist may get samples
from the wrong part of the prostate, missing the tumor, and the
pathologist may misread the slides, also missing the cancer.  The
digital rectal exam may also be poorly done, missing a palpable
tumor.  All of these things happen often, and two of the three
happened to me (misreading slides and ineffective rectal exam).

So the bad news is that you have cancer, and I'm sure you're
still in shock from receiving that news.  The news hits you like
a brick dropped on your head.

But the good news is that you _know_ you have cancer, and
have already started on a plan to get rid of it.  The odds are
very good that you'll succeed.  And the odds are better for
your having been diagnosed now than if a "maybe this, maybe
that" diagnosis allowed the cancer to progress for some
additional period of time before it was recognized and treated.

Best of luck.

  Alan

That's the same attitude that's helped me stay focused. I had better numbers
than most here, and could have easily opted out of the biopsy. It keeps my
spirits up to remind myself how lucky I am that I have a persistent uro who
happened to stick the right spot!