Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself

The gel will absorb. I never fealt it so no idea how long it took to disappear.

thanks for that, just wondering as it does seem like a very good preventive measure

I agree with rockinat59. The biopsy will indicate whether you have PC. If your Gleason score is 6, you will go on Active Surveillance and be regularly tested. PC is slow growing so there is no real need for urgency.

windy4me: Trying not to make this a "solution" comment but in turn, and I hope, it may provide some support for you as it did for me. If you have your biopsy tested using the Decipher test, you will have a better feel for the aggressiveness level of what you have and whether multi-modal treatment is required. For me, it was comforting to statistically have an idea (6,708 patients) what my 10-year risk of metastasis with patients of similar clinical features at the time of biopsy was. My brother also has prostate cancer and it has metastasized. He takes hormone therapy and is weak and tired at times and he took the test as well to give he and his doctor additional guidance. Your right...its very scary and not always clear what to do or expect. Comfort for me came from family, friends and as you recognize, from people on this Mayo site but I found it also can additionally come from independent testing without any connection to a particular doctor or institution.

Thanks for the reply. I just saw an MRI Prostate Conturing report which is completely different from the original MRI reading. The first one was 2.8 CM lesion and PI-RADS 3, and now it says I have 5 lesions 2-PI-RAD 5, @ PI-RAD 4, and 1 PI-RAD 3. Is this something normal or have you heard of it? No one from the doctor's office told me anything about this. And does dull hip aches and feeling of something lower abs means the cancer has spread?

Thanks for the great replies and posts. How typical is it to have one MRI Doctor diagnosed at PI-RADS 3 with 1 lesion and the other come back with 5 lesions graded PI-RAD 3-5? They did an MRI prostate contouring without me knowing, and I found the result in records online. I am not sure what any of this means. Not sure if anyone can comment, but is it possible to have glute/hip dull aches (occasional) and not have stage 3 or 4 cancer? I have PSA 3.9, a jump from 2.26 3 months earlier. Any thoughts are appreciated

My Urologist requested a specific doctor to read my Prostate MRI. When I asked him why, he basically indicated that the number of doctors skilled enough to accurately read the image was limited. That only served to confirm the choice of having the Decipher test as a back up …for everything…like a second opinion.

I hear the industry is trying to use artificial intelligence to improve these type of imaging diagnostic readings but obviously its not there yet.

I think my RO is great, with skill, experience, a comforting personality, and she answered all my questions including a couple with” I don’t know”. Many RO’s seem to subtlety avoid answering a question with “I don't know “ and there are, as a layman, many grey areas unfortunately, that do not have clear answers. It’s hard to know, when to know, that your answers to questions will no longer yield further insightful information that may help you make a better decision. I had to sort of minimize the grey areas the best I could and at some point accept some of the unknowns and make the best decision I could as a collaborative patient.

Is anyone on the hormone drug Firmagon? If so what are the side effects to expect? The nurse mentioned hot flashes but there must be more.
Thanks to all.

Greetings.
My name is Bob Clark. Just diagnosed 2 weeks ago with lower right quadrant 30% involvement. Waiting on a body & bone scan - a baseline I am told. My doctor is initially suggesting surgery since it is localized. This sounds like a good option for me.
My immediate fears beyond treatment is economic. I am 62 and hope I have enough saved to retire if needed. But I do want to keep working. My prayer is that I can return to work after the surgery catheter is removed.
Beyond that I am a marathon runner and hope to stay very active.
Thanks for this group.

Hi @roberdc ,

It's quite the jarring piece of information isn't it. We've all been through that and you'll get past it. I've had the surgery and was back to work within 3-4 months. My profession requires medical approval from the federal Govt and we all know what a daunting bureaucracy that can be.

In the majority of cases the cath comes out in 10 -14 ish days, then you have to be very careful for a month or so regarding minor incontinence and then off to work you go (at least that's when my doc released me, the Feds had another idea...). If I recall correctly I was back to work after the second PSA test, 3-4 mos, it only took that long because the feds require your PSA to be below a certain level.

I'm jealous of your discipline being a marathoner, I could never manage it. I do run very regularly though. It took me about 3 mos + before I could manage running without minor leakage though. Don't be discouraged if that takes a little longer. It did come back !

Kegels, Kegels, Kegels..if you do decide on the surgery, you'll need to become familiar with this exercise, both before and after surgery. My doc didn't even mention it, some docs send patients to a special PT for it and all manor of recs in between. I'd ask the doc for the most aggressive exercise training he's comfortable with regarding this. Your a marathoner, this is a cake exercise for you!

Best of Luck to you for the best outcome possible!