Oncology appointments to review results

My initial visit went okay. The facts were clear, there was cancer in at least one lymph node - ugh. I chose not to follow the Doctor’s advice. She agreed if I got my PSA tested every three months. After 9 months I had a Zoom meeting. I was surprised to hear how elated she was with my PSA. It’s now been 30 months and I’m still doing well, which I’m grateful for!

Are the 2nd Wednesday presentations available online to this group. I missed last month and will miss this month due to doctor appointments

@rodney1959, yes. The next zoom meeting is April 10. See info here:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/event/prostate-cancer-support-group-103/
Dr. Oliver Sartor will be presenting a talk on "Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials." Dr. Sartor is an internationally recognized expert in prostate cancer. He is a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and is the director of Radiopharmaceutical Clinical Trials across the Mayo enterprise. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease. The goal of clinical trials is to determine whether a new test or treatment works and is safe. Dr. Sartor leads or co-leads numerous clinical trials on prostate cancer.

@wooldridgec, I recommend discussing this with your oncologist. It may be his personality, but he might appreciate understanding what you need or want from the relationship. Some doctors err on the side of not giving false hope or try to deliver the facts without inadvertently being subjective. This can result in the "downer" attitude that you are experiencing.

Rathering than fearing "false hope", some doctors are particularly good at framing hope within the realistic parameters of the diagnosis. Whether one has stage 4 or stage 1, they discuss the results in terms of what can be done, what has been successful, etc. Glass half full vs half empty?

I think you might be doing him (and other patients) a favor by letting him know the effect of his demeanor on you. What do you think? Is he approachable?

Thank you for your response. It is a she and I specifically asked her if she will ever feel more positive or hopeful as I remain undetectable and clear. She said no, because of the unpredictability of stage 4 prostate cancer. She the went into how she was initially worried about me during and after completing chemotherapy because my PSA started at 1.005 during chemo and ended at 0.234 and during chemo my PSA went up and down a few times. After chemo my PSA just continued to drop until I was undetectable. She said that small percent of men's PSA continues to drop after chemo and thank god mine did. She also said that over 50% of her patients have their PSA rise during chemo and they get worse. So I think she experiences a majority of tough cases and few successes like myself. My hope is she would be like the first Oncologist. She said while I cannot be cured, she can treat the illness like a chronic disease and that I would probably die of something else. But, she was not as good as my current Oncologist. My Life with Cancer NP is very positive and more hopeful for me as she says she sees many men in my state and that I seem to be different than most of her patients. She also provides more stats like 10-15% of men with stage 4 prostate cancer - the cancer never returns. It does not have to be an eventuality that the cancer comes back or I become castrate sensitive. I'm in a group of men that have prostate cancer, some at stage 1 and other stage 4. The stage 4 men are 7, 8, or longer with this disease. While I understand everyone with this cancer is different, I no longer feel like I have cancer so I am very hopeful.