When you go into the Doctor’s Office to take a prostate cancer test, The tests that are given to you, although invasive, are nothing compared to the waiting for the results. I was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate and first went for a PSA test and then a biopsy. I got the results of the biopsy about two weeks after the test and my doctor said that I did not have cancer of the prostate. Well, about 3 months later I was at the Veterans Administration Clinic in Las Vegas and my VA doctor told me that they were recommending me for a biopsy because my PSA was high. My first PSA test and biopsy were done without the knowledge of the VA. When I told the VA doctor that I already had a biopsy and it was negative, she informed me that my PSA was high and another biopsy was recommended. I hesitantly agreed.
In about 3 weeks I received my date for my appointment for the VA biopsy. I went and it was done without incident and when I went back in to get the results I was told that the results were inconclusive and another biopsy was in order. Well, as I said before the invasive tests were not that big a deal, so I went ahead and scheduled another biopsy. In the meantime my father in law died and because of conflicting dates and going out of state for the funeral, I cancelled the biopsy. About a month after the funeral the lack of any results on the proposed third biopsy began to eat at me. No biopsy, no results and the second one was inconclusive. I made an appointment for the third biopsy. Again , the biopsy was easy and uneventful.
Two weeks after the third biopsy I walked into the Doctor’s office to get the results of the biopsy. He greeted me and said that I had prostate cancer, just as he had thought. He said some other things to me, to which I was totally oblivious, and then I walked out of his office in a confused and frightened daze. I drove 165 miles home and walked in the door of my home greeted my wife and told her that I had prostate cancer. We then began the most confusing fight of our lives. I am writing this article because I want all of the other confused and frightened men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer to see what we went through and possibly learn from our mistakes on the type of treatment or treatments to pursue.
One month later I went back to my oncologist who had given me the news of my prostate cancer and my wife and I sat down with pencil and paper and proceeded to listen to him. He informed us that my cancer was very aggressive. My Gleason score was nine. It was a 4 plus 5. And then he explained how this score went from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest or worst. I immediately asked how in the hell could I have such an aggressive cancer when I had been tested so thoroughly this past year. He informed that the biopsies were not 100% because only 15 samples are taken and the prostate cancer could be missed. But now we had it. He then outlined our plan of attack. This is where I feel that we made our first mistake in dealing with my prostate cancer. We should have stopped him right there and gotten another opinion from a specialist. I have medicare and a supplement insurance policy.
We did not stop him and I was send to get a bone scan and some other test to see if the cancer had spread from the prostate.. I could not get it in my head how it could have spread (metastasized) in such a short period of time. I was still confused and scared but the whole situation did not seem right to me. The bone scan came back and I was told that my cancer had moved from the prostate to the long bone in my leg but that the VA was sending me to an independent cancer doctor in Las Vegas. I went and the cancer doctor immediately Xrayed the bone in question and told me that it was not cancer but probably an injury or hit to the bone in my youth.
We went home and on the drive we evaluated our situation. We have been scared, unscared, scared and unscared so many times that I was ready to say I quit..That evening a couple who live about a mile from us stopped by to say Hi and to talk to us about my cancer. They were good friends and I had kept him informed as to what was happening. He leaned forward and said to me that he had been watching me loose weight and became a wreck and wanted to know why we had not gone for another opinion. I said why did I need another opinion when the VA had found it and could handle it. He had been to Mayo Clinic for lung cancer and had it cut out of his lung. He told me that if you have not been to one of these speciality clinics you should go. Next morning we called the Huntsman Cancer Clinic in Salt Lake City, UT. They make an appointment for me to come up and they made arrangement’s get my tissue samples from the VA so that they could run their own tests.
When we got to the doctors’ office in SLC, UT we were impressed with the facility. We went in and saw the doctor and he informed us that their results of testing my tissue showed a
Gleason of 7 or a 4 plus 3. He wanted to remove my prostate. He told me that if I had radiation that he would not be able to remove the prostate. We agreed and set a date for the operation.
I went back to Vegas and told the VA oncologist what the surgeon at Huntsman had told me. He told me I was making a mistake and that I should go with Hormone therapy combined with radiation. I asked if they could or would remove the prostate since the bone scan had been determined to not be cancer. His answer was no and He supposed that I was having robotic surgery. I told him that the surgery was not robotic and that this surgeon did 5 of these a week and that I was now confident and not scared.
The surgery was preformed last year and my doctor, with a very big emotional smile on his face informed me and my wife that the cancer had not even spread to the lymph nodes and that my chances of recurrence were 5%. I have since taken three PSA tests, three months apart and the results are undetectable. My insurance paid 100%. I have a medicare advantage plan which “President” Obama is trying to do away with. That’s another article. I have no incontinence and everything works like it should. I thank my neighbor, my surgeon , my God and I thank the VA for finding that I had prostate cancer. Most of all I thank my wife for standing right next to me through the whole ordeal. I am one lucky and grateful man.
The single most important thing concerning Prostate Cancer is early detection. You must go and have the PSA checked and don’t be afraid of a biopsy or two. Then, be sure and get a second opinion.
