I had the Biopsy prior to the PSMA scan, the PSMA scan showed my cancer was confined within the gland and had not invaded any of the surrounding tissues. Based on that, my Urologist wanted me to have a Lupron shot, as Hormone Therapy, to reduce testosterone production. Testosterone feeds the growth of the cancer. Ergo, the cancer should not grow or spread due to the Lupron. The Lupron DID give me hot flashes, several times each day and night. The Venlafaxine that I mentioned did provide relief.

When my Urologist told me that I had cancer, we briefly discussed the options, radiation and surgery. In that visit he gave me name and phone numbers of a Radiation Oncologist and of a Surgeon/Urologist. This was after the biopsy.

By the way, my wife was accompanying me to all of these visits, and the doctors were kind enough to allow me to record the conversations on my phone. (The later versions of Microsoft Word have a "Dictate" feature from the menu. So, in Word, I clicked the Dictate button, then started playing the voice recording, and, if the voices are clear, you have a Word document of the conversation, a document that needs editing as it is all run together and you need to insert headings here and there to identify the speaker, for readability's sake.)

After the Radiation Oncologist visit, I was leaning towards radiation treatment.

I spoke with the surgeon, whom my Urologist had worked with. In this discussion, he stated: "And so, from a cancer standpoint, the survival benefit in your case is pretty similar between surgery and radiation, I would say. The main difference is if you have a recurrence from that with radiation your treatment options are much more limited as opposed to surgery. With a recurrence after surgery, you can get radiation afterwards. Then, otherwise, if you're going to live a very long time you worry about secondary cancers with radiation as leukemias and lymphomas. But those are rare."

After the surgery, i had some discomfort, which is what a call "Pain rating less than 1." I had some pain pills from my Urologist but did not use any.

The PSMA scan came after the biopsy. The reason for the PSMA scan was to see where the cancer was located in my body; the scan showed that it was confined to the prostate gland itself. It had not spread anywhere else.

My Urologist gave me information on a Radiation Oncologist and a Urologist/Surgeon, and included that he had worked with that Surgeon before.

It was my Urologist who told me that radiation did some damage to the tissue, making surgery after radiation moe challenging, while surgery removed tissue/gland and left the area viable for radiation.

Therefore, I opted for the RALP. After a long discussion with my Urologist, who had me as the last appointment of the day to give me all the time I needed. After reviewing my results and some of the articles I had collected into a binder, I told him of my choice. He then said that he would have made the same decision if those were his "numbers."

Having seem my Surgeon at a 6-month checkup, and after an ultrasensitive PSA test, my PSA is less than 0.008.

I feel truly blessed to have been given the outcome that I had. I wish this on everyone.