I’m hoping, but not too confident

Posted by asgmiami1 @asgmiami1, Mar 4 1:28pm

Out of all the reading and research I’ve been doing, it seems very little is routine to this disease. What’s true for one guy, isn’t for the next. There’s no real “patterning” this.
There’s something going on with me, my PSA certainly suggests it. But I was surprised to find that the only true, “red flags” symptoms I have is for prostatitis, which I always passed off as hemmeroids. I’ve had a colonoscopy in the last 5 years, so I wasn’t overly concerned with that. Like my title says, I’m hoping, but not confident.
But you all are so much more knowledgable in all this than me. Could this be Prostatitis?
I’m still going through with follow up testing, but I’m trying to find some hope.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

jeff Marchi | @jeffmarc | Mar 4 1:41pm

The first thing to do is get a PSA test. Most people have no symptoms at all when they have prostate cancer. Prostatitis is not a significant symptom of prostate cancer. Hemorrhoids are definitely not a symptom.

Prostatitis is the inflammation of the prostate gland, causing urinary issues (frequency, burning) and deep pelvic pain, while hemorrhoids are swollen veins in the anus/rectum causing itching, bleeding, and surface discomfort. While both can cause rectal pain, prostatitis relates to the urogenital system, whereas hemorrhoids are a vascular, anorectal issue.

It is possible to have both.

topf | @topf | Mar 4 2:09pm

What is your PSA? You ate not providing the most critical information to get any advice.

asgmiami1 | @asgmiami1 | Mar 4 2:14pm

In reply to @topf "What is your PSA? You ate not providing the most critical information to get any advice." + (show)

@topf
It went from .86 to 2.27 in one year. Quite a jump, which is what’s concerning me. But I got definite prostatitis symptoms. I’m hoping that’s the cause.

asgmiami1 | @asgmiami1 | Mar 4 2:16pm

In reply to @jeffmarc "The first thing to do is get a PSA test. Most people have no symptoms at..." + (show)

@jeffmarc
I do my PSA every year. It was .86 last year, 2.27 a year later. That’s concerning.
But like I said, the only true symptoms I have are prostatitis related.
I’m hoping…

topf | @topf | Mar 4 2:18pm

In reply to @asgmiami1 "@topf It went from .86 to 2.27 in one year. Quite a jump, which is what’s..." + (show)

@asgmiami1 What does your urologist tell you? The PSA is not particularly high. I assume they are telling you to monitor it at this point.

jeff Marchi | @jeffmarc | Mar 4 2:19pm

In reply to @asgmiami1 "@jeffmarc I do my PSA every year. It was .86 last year, 2.27 a year later...." + (show)

@asgmiami1
The prostatitis definitely could be the cause Of the higher PSA.

It still isn’t above what would be considered normal.

asgmiami1 | @asgmiami1 | Mar 4 2:41pm

In reply to @topf "@asgmiami1 What does your urologist tell you? The PSA is not particularly high. I assume they..." + (show)

@topf
I haven’t seen one yet. I’m going back to my PC next week for further clinical investigating. We’re doing a DRE and I’m gonna request some other tests like a PSE and a urine test to look for infection indicating prostatitis.

asgmiami1 | @asgmiami1 | Mar 4 2:42pm

In reply to @jeffmarc "@asgmiami1 The prostatitis definitely could be the cause Of the higher PSA. It still isn’t above..." + (show)

@jeffmarc
That’s what I’m hoping, but the more than doubling concerns me.

wwsmith | @wwsmith | Mar 4 3:03pm

In reply to @asgmiami1 "@jeffmarc That’s what I’m hoping, but the more than doubling concerns me." + (show)

@asgmiami1 The Episwitch PSE test here http://www.94percent.com is a very simple, accurate blood test to see whether you have prostate cancer or not.

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | Mar 4 4:08pm

In reply to @wwsmith "@asgmiami1 The Episwitch PSE test here www.94percent.com is a very simple, accurate blood test to see..." + (show)

@asgmiami1 Just to be clear (since you're new to our group), there is no actual blood test that directly detects prostate cancer yet: the closest we have is the "liquid biopsy" trials to try to detect circulating tumour cells, but they're still not ready for prime time yet with prostate cancer.

However, @wwsmith 's suggestion is still worth a look. "PSE" is a trademark owned by Oxford BioDynamics for the process of combining a regular PSA screening test with an epigenetic test (the "E") to help reduce false-positive diagnoses of de-novo prostate cancer. I'm not sure if it would be useful yet with your still-low PSA, but that's something you can discuss with your oncologist.