Post PSA numbers here

[1212FBGS]

Hey Guys,
My dad was just diagnosed with prostate cancer 2 weeks ago.
The good news is they think they caught it in time, and he should be ok. We have lost a lot of good people to it including our really good friend Don Vesco just a few years ago. This cancer thing really sucks…. but we don’t have to die from it…. If detected early enough it can be stopped and cured!

Soooooo with that said, I am going to listen to my dad’s advise for the first time in over 40 years and I am going to see doctor cold finger next week… yeh, yeh, yeh stop laughing… most of you guys are over 40 out there and are a possible victim!

Yep you might guess where I’m going with this… I don’t want to loose any more of my friends to this crap… so here it is… We post our speed numbers on this board like it is a badge of honor, and it is, but I challenge…. no wait that’s a little soft…. I demand that you guys go get checked out and post your PSA numbers here! Anything less than a 4 is good… if over that we’ll be here for your support.
So really, when was the last time ya got checked out? No really, when? Ok guys (and Girls too) suck it up, go down, all it takes is a blood test…post your numbers here…
Jon, Jack, Glen, Slim, Sum…….. ready…. set…. go…
Kent

PS, My sister and mother had breast cancer a few years ago.
      The good word here is “HAD”

[JackD]

Well Sami knows the number and I do not.
The key indicator is that she continues to let me buy new shoes.

In the past few years I have been picked, poked, prodded, cut, lightened up, and rebuilt with suitable replacements parts enough to buy them a few new cars.
I have had the best do everything they knew and they finally put me on a long leash.
Now they only want to see me around tax time.

There were a few set backs though.
While I continue to ask and they assure me I can, I still can't play the piano, but then I never could before either. They really hate that.

Once when I was interviewing potential cadaver donors for a skin graft, Guthrie was rejected for having too many spots.

"Cold Finger" did 12 biopsies in 1 sitting.
It was a little confusing because I was laying down and he was sitting. I couldn't see, butt while I thought "bi" meant 2, I had no idea he must have invited 5 friends.

If their is one thing they stressed when I was in an ICU was skirt etiquette.
I guess I never learned and they were always stressed by it.

The older you get the more people you lose to various things and there are many reasons and fewer excuses.
The lesson I do carry with me is, "Anything you want to keep deserves good preventive maintenance." (me)

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Kent:

First of all, best wishes for your dad.  I hope he gets through this mess okay and doesn't lose anything more than some sleep while he's awaiting a successful result from treatment.

Good for you -- get that PSA checked and part of your regular schedule for your annual physical (you do get one of those, right?).  I have the PSA checked each and every year -- but don't remember what the result/number was last November when I had the workup done.  Dr. would have mentioned it if it was elevated or elevating, though, so I'm not concerned.

I've told this story before, but I'll repeat it to you -- maybe you weren't online that day.  A couple of years ago I joined a national trial to see whether selenium or Vitamin E help prevent prostate cancer (there's anecdotal evidence that they might, so Southwest Oncology Group is running this trial with abut 32,000 guys).  It's a double blind ten-year trial where we take the pills they give us -- they either are or are not Vitamin E and/or selenium.  We get their one-a-day vitamins, too, so we are not getting E or S via the vitamins we take.

There are visits every six months to the local program administrators to check on us, and they get copies of the PSA test from the doctor as part of the program.  They, too, would alert me if there were abnormal results.

Finally -- when you reach the age that they start doing those tests where they shove a small telephone pole up your butt (a/k/a sigmoidoscopy the first time, colonoscopy from then on), ask me to tell you how I got back at the doctor for violating my private space.  What I did is a good idea for everyone, I think.  And neither you or the doc will ever forget the procedure.

[Glen]

MY PSA is 0.5
Glen

[Bob Drury]

My advice is skip the sigmoidoscopy unless you are into pain and humiliation, and go for the colonoscopy which comes with a nap, and get it done NOW.  When I got a physical last year, the Doc started to mention a sigmoidoscopy and I asked him if he had ever had one.  He replied, "hell no, not while I am awake".  The colonoscopy is a snap, if they could just make that juice taste like beer.............

[Bob Drury]

One thing I forgot to mention, the other nice thing about a colonoscopy is that if they see any polyps, they take them out while they are there, so when you wake up it is already done, rather than have to worry about going back in later.  Ed "the Ace" McCullogh is one of the lucky ones who had cancerous polyps and is here to talk about it.

[bak189]

In Feb. 07 mine was 4.5......for years now I have had BPH (enlarged prostate) and discomfort at times from prostatitis (inflamed)..............that is why I will not make Elmo this weekend appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale,AZ
for some additional tests and a PSA...........know almost as much about prostate problems as
 building M/C frames...........almost!!!!!!!!!
Kent, best of luck to your Dad.....should be O.K. they got it early.............................

[GH]

Mine has run 0.4 for quite a few years, here's hoping it stays the same, sure have had other problems. Cya

[wolcottjl]

I had polyps removed at 30.  I went in for abdominal pain.  They did a colonoscopy and found a little diverticulitus.  Doc said to eat more fresh fruit and stay away from small seeds (raspberry, strawberry, etc...).  So far so good no problems since (12 years).  I am due for another checkup in July.

[Rick Byrnes]

As a 10 year survivor of Prostate cancer, I wish you dad well Kent and I pray he will choose the right course of treatment.  My cancers were quite early and I now of course have PSA levels of less than .2   I however still have annual tests because recurrence is much more agressive than the the original slow growing cells.

My purpose of writing though is to help you other guys understand that it is not the level itself, but how it increases over the years.  (slope of the curve).  My PSA when I had the biopsy done, was only 4.6, but the rate of increasing changed dramatically during the previous two years.  We need to be committed to blood tests every year.

Kent, If you father would like to speak to someone such as me to help him understand some of the details of treatment, please feel free to invite him to contact me.  My surgery and recovery included lots of challanges that are not experienced by many, but your dad needs to be aware of such things.  The surgeons want to cut, the radiologists want to radiate.  Luckily choices are different than 10 years ago  and as you say, his chances of full recovery are very good.  Please give him my best.

AND YOU OTHER GUYS JUST GETTING CLOSE TO 50
The digital exam is older than the flathead and provides little actual data.  A cancer can be quite far along before they can actually feel irregurlarities in the surface of the gland.  A simple PSA blood test each year gives YOU the data to work with and perhaps control your own destiny.  (again, slope of the curve.). Fortunately I had a physician that would not let me ignore that constant irregular increase.  She continually pointed out that any good little engineer could not ignore something so compelling as the data the blood tests provided.

OK my friends end of lecture.
Glen, I'm happy yours is so low that the slope is a horizontal line.

Rick

[John Burk]

Last year I had a colonoscopy . To make conversation with the 75 year old driver they sent to pick me up I asked if he knew anything about Bonneville . He said yea I crewed for Art Arfons there once . My driver had owned Atco Dragway and  Arfons  knew him from running there . It pays to ask . The colonoscopy found no problems .
John Burk

[JackD]

A little bit of friendly conversation like that not only relaxes everybody involved but opens a lot of doors that might otherwise be obsticals.
Relax and enjoy, cuz ya gott trust them to know what they are doing and a better patient is gonn a get better treatment.

[k.h.]

Don't lie to your doctor.  Don't fake it to your doctor.  He needs all the information you can cough up to do everything possible to fight your disease. 
My first urologist who did a biopsy was formerly a professor of medicine before semi-retiring to the Ozark Plateau.  He referred me to his former peer up in the city, a cocky and confident surgeon in both America's Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America for 2006.  He did a great laparoscopic job and expects me to last a long time, but I get a PSA every 90 days while in a 5 year study through John's Hopkins.  PSA too low to measure so far and I'm okay with it staying that way.  I would like at least another decade to get things in order, because it would have been financially best for my family if I'd croaked during the operation.  I didn't plan to retire anyway, since work IS a vacation (and vacations are work).
9 out of 10 guys lie about whether or not they "dribble" for a prolonged time after surgery.  The medicos can teach one how to speed recovery in that area. 
Every study I enrolled in had questions about how much cured meat with nitrates I consumed.  I think they were hinting at cause.  And canned tomatoes are higher in lycopene than fresh, for the natural prevention crowd.
My confident surgeon told me about treating another doctor in his mid-70s who didn't care about being cured so much as still having a sex life.  Hmmm.  I guess the roll of the dice was in my favor.  Your prostrate produces the alkaline fluid that sperm ride in.  A dry orgasm is preferable to being dead if you have unfinished business.  I've hooked up with a prostate cancer survivor's support group.  Even if one is not a"joiner," this is a forum that makes a considerable difference to get one accustomed to the changes in one's life and keep current on treatment possibilities, especially if they get quality guest speakers.
Kent, I wish your dad the best.

[aswracing]

Just got my results back (yearly physical), PSA is .76
Cholesterol 151 (I take statins and niacin to control it)
48 yo
hopefully I'll make it another year.

[russ jensen]

04=.41---05=.38 can't find 06 & haven't done 07 yet- did the home colon test every year- last  Aug was told to do colonospcy thing- had been 10 years since last one- surprise- 19 polyps  1 bad one cancerous- back for another poke & prod in Nov and some came back- don't know why but won't get another till this Nov- {all in Mayo system} I would be a little more  @ ease for another look sooner but they should know.. only thing that is bothersome about whole procedure is the prep, mixing the clean you out stuff w/ cranberry juice worked the best for me. I also got cked for heavy metals- I am high in zinc & nickel- probably from all the nickel silver I use- was worried about chrome & cad but there O K.