Today I contacted The City of Hope and scheduled an appointment with the organization for a second opinion. I had felt for some time I needed a second opinion primarily because when I started seeing my current urologist he had ordered a PSA and the results indicated that I no longer had cancer, so he suggested to me that I should consider testosterone pellets, since my testosterone level was low. I had 7 pellets for three months and another 7 three months later. In the 5th month my PSA started moving up. My urologist claimed that this has never happened before for him. He had asked me if I feel any different with the pellets and I told him no, I couldn't really tell the difference. Giving me these pellets was a red flag for me. Move ahead months and my PSA rises to 0.90 and he suggests seeing a radiation oncologist in Tustin. When I return to the urologist he suggests Lupron shots every three months. I asked him how about every month? Is there any difference with the two periods of treatments and he said not really. When I read online many men are having significant side effects I am thinking every month would probably be better for the control of side effects. The one guy above had a 6-month shot of Lupron and he had terrible side effects. So, the urologist's input that it doesn't make any difference is suspect and the second red flag. This is why I contacted The City of Hope, which has offices all over southern California. My urologist works with some patients that have or had prostate cancer, but the City of Hope specializes in the area of cancer. I need to see doctors who treat prostate cancer patients daily, not occasionally.

By the way many years ago I was seeing a PA at my MD's office. My PSA kept creeping up and doubling every year. He said nothing until it became double digits. If he had alerted me to the problem when it was low (< 7.0), but increasing, I would have not had a 4+4=8 Gleason score prior to the robotic surgery with the De Vinci System. After surgery it was a Gleason 9, which means the cancer moved beyond the prostate. Men need to keep an eye on the PSA score moving from < .3 on the first generation testing equipment, < .03 on second generation testing equipment, and < .003 on third generation equipment. You can tell what generation the equipment they used at your lab by the digits to the right of the decimal point.