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Overwhelming fear after undetectable to slightly detectable psa
My husband had a prostatectomy in June 2022. Gleason 3+4 (less than 5% 4) organ confined disease. His pre-op PSA was 7.
Last week he had a USPSA result of .14, first detactable PSA postsurgery.
I watched my dad die from prostate cancer in 2009. This USPSA result has triggered overwhelming fear that my husband will die and memories of all that my dad had to go through.
I need reassurance that he won’t die.
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Ksusan: Some good advice from the other guys. As my wife would say, old tapes can provoke really strong emotions, understandably. While the PSA test becomes the metric for your concern (and the old tapes), between the improvement in imaging and contrast, multiple choices in radiation machines that protect healthy tissue affecting quality of life and the small number of hypo fractional treatments available, there is realistic hope that whatever is happening inside your husbands body after his prostate removal, that he has additional solutions that could extend his life for a long period of time. There are no guarantees but there are real additional treatments that can help and if it is possible for you to focus on that, it may help you and your husband manage the fear. It did with my wife and me. My only other comment is keep coming back to this site and use the search function to see what others are doing that might give you additional hope and insight.
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1 ReactionThanks so much for posting this website! It has an amazing array of PCa subject videos, covered by top experts in the field.
Although their mission is to keep healthcare professionals up to date with the latest advances in PCa care…it’s a great info source for the PCa patient who wants to have an in-depth explanation of the same.
I bookmarked this one, and placed it right next to this support group!
Thanks again!
No problem, that's what the support group is for, share information and support!
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1 ReactionDear Aircam and Ksusan,
My heart goes out to all of you. I give you my prayers and encouraging support as a fellow journeyman. I cannot expand upon the good advice and counsel and gracious support of those who have posted before me. God Bless us All and All in our troubled World.
I totally agree with perrychristopher - I am currently facing the same exact thing 4 yrs after surgery. It's discouraging, frightening and all the rest but you do the ADT and salvage radiation and wait to see what happens. They NEVER tell you that for the rest of your lives you will have the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head, but if you stopped to think of all the ways you could die - in ways you were never even aware of or tested for - this is certainly not the worst.