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When to switch doctors? Anyone take this step?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 22, 2025 | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
Helpful - thanks. I live in Arizona. I had a conversation this week with someone I met through the Prostate Cancer Coalition who works in radiation. That office has oncologists so I might see about going there. The issues I saw in the post-op notes, some of which I mentioned in the first post, make me feel more urgent than the urologist/surgeon is acting. I'm worried about aggressive growth - I was Gleason 4+3 at the biopsy on 7/25/24 and 4+5 at surgery on 11/11/24. I understand that a PSA of 0.02 is lower than what would normally cause concern, but for it to be detectable at all just 7 months after surgery also concerns me. I thought I had an easier cancer - my parents both died from pancreatic - but apparently that was unwarranted optimism.
Replies to "Helpful - thanks. I live in Arizona. I had a conversation this week with someone I..."
Thinking they put you with a PA instead of a doctor post surgery during the watch period. Hopefully your doctor was in front of you post surgery to answer all of your questions. I would think your PA could answer all of your questions if they work full time in the prostate cancer world. If that is the case I would be ok with that. If your numbers start rising they probably won't do anything until you hit .2 in the US. My liver PA was well qualified to manage my serious liver condition. She always consulted through notes with my doctor. He was always there for my treatments and biopsies. If it stays at .02 based on my experience just keep watching it through regular psa tests. It could settle there. RP's have many patients that have to go back for salvage radiation in a year or two if the psa rises.
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If my PSA was as low as yours, I would just see that it’s < .1. I’ve not been getting the extra sensitive tests. I don’t want to have to worry if mine goes up just a little bit like yours has. At .02 it is time to wait for the next test. It really might be just an insignificant blip. Did you ride a bike before you had the PSA test??