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| Each man's Journey is listed under his BASIC treatment. When you click on one of the names to read a particular Journey, you may see one or more different treatments in bold lettering immediately above the Journey text. You will see (Recurrence) if they are due to a recurrence. Otherwise, they will be treatments used in conjunction with the basic treatment, i.e. Lupron with External Beam Radiation or External Beam Radiation with HDRT/Brachytherapy, etc. | |
Active Surveillance Alternative (Natural) Therapy Cryoablation - Freezing Hormone Therapy Radiation - Brachytherapy Radiation - External Beam Radiation - HDRT Surgery - Open Surgery - Robotic |
External Beam (Recurrence) My first PSA, taken in 1992 when I was 60 years old, was 2.0, a very good PSA number. It stayed that way through 1996. Starting in 1997, it was never the same in two consecutive years. In fact, from 1997 to 2005, every single annual PSA reading was one-of-a-kind , 03.2; 03.0; 02.9; 04.3; 03.7; 04.1; 03.9; 02.7; 06.9. My numbers were actually improving from the 04.1 in 2002 to a 03.9 in 2003 followed by a good drop to02.7 in 2004 before it more than doubled to 06.9 in 2005. That jump sure got everyone's attention! I always got the digital rectal exam (DRE) along with the PSA blood test and they were always OK. But, not this time. My primary doctor said I needed to see a urologist, so I was off to see Dr. Hoff. Sure enough, he also felt the lump on my prostate. The jump in my PSA plus the lump on the prostate didn't make for good news. Dr. Hoff suggested that he biopsy my prostate to see what was going on and of the 12 needle cores, nine were malignant. A friend told me about the Us TOO/Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group meetings at the Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw and my wife, Freddie, and I started attending in January 2006. We found listening to men relate their experiences with different treatments very informative and helpful. We also benefited greatly from listening to Dr. Bryan Mehlhaff answer questions and share his expertise at the meetings. But, as is always the case, I (with Freddie's help) still had to make my own decision about my own treatment. After much soul searching, Freddie and I finally decided to have the prostate surgically removed (radical prostatectomy) and simply get rid of it. After surgery, my PSA dropped to 0.02 which was good. During the next three years, my PSA was up and down, finally reaching 0.13. That meant some cancer was still "in there" and Dr. Hoff said my next step was radiation. That meant seeing Dr. Barry Blyton, Oregon Urology's Radiation Oncologist. Unfortunately, during these three years, my incontinence had worsened to the point that I was having increased leakage. Dr. Blyton sent me to see physical therapist Lois Sheffield, who got me started doing pelvic floor exercises (Kegels). Dr. Blyton's words were clear: If I didn't have my continence under control before radiation, it would only get worse after radiation. So, if I wanted radiation, I needed to regain continence. I got it under control, had 40 treatments of radiation and still do my Kegel exercises several times a week. My first PSA after three months was 0.04 that's good. Drs. Blyton and Hoff said that it would take at least a year or more for the PSA to get to its lowest level. Dr. Hoff also told me that with that low of a PSA the radiation hit the cancer. Now I am getting a PSA test every three months and seeing Dr. Hoff every six months. All is going well. |
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