Newly diagnosed with prostate cancer and still gathering information

We welcome you do this horrible club but we don't want you here, just as we don't want to be here either. There is so much information out there, so much on here and you go from being completely ignorant of the details of prostate cancer to having the entire world dropped right on your head at once.

It's easy to be totally overwhelmed, scared, and full of dread. I was too. And I bet most guys here have similar stories.

Remember that PC is treatable. There are so many guys on here that were treated 10-25 years ago that are still kicking. The side effects you read about are not guaranteed. I'm a couple months since my RARP and don't have ED or incontinence. Of course that's circumstantial, but this is not a guarantee that this is just the beginning of your suffering.

My advice is to read stuff people post here. Talk to as many doctors as you can in urology, medical oncology and radiation oncology so you can determine the best path forward for you. Read the books already recommended on here, they are excellent resources.

I can say that the months before my surgery were far worse than the months after it. The worry is real, the stress is sometimes unbearable, but 1 in 8 will get prostate cancer, so you aren't alone and you can bet that there's not 1 in every 8 guys dying from it either - or our cities would be far less congested.

We are all here for you. We've all been there. We are brothers now in a really crappy club.

I can’t either, I don’t have a connection with the shrimp like I do with my prostate. My doctor is the chair of the urology dept here, can’t go any higher up the ladder

I tried watching some videos on what goes on in a RP surgery and when they said "peel back the prostate" I just stopped the video. I couldn't watch that.

TOPF, sorry for the typo, my phone thinks you should be called Roof

Roof, I was pretty set on going the non surgical route as well but as I learn more I find myself leaning more towards surgery

Retired guy, I love the analogy, drinking from a firehouse, perfect! lol I remember listening through the door during my last visit when the PA was talking to the doctor before I met him. Her comment was, he asks a lot of questions, funny! But I have been reading everything I can. When I finally met the doctor I told him I had been reading about him, he asked how much and I answered everything I could find on the internet. Even watched a video of him pealing a shrimp with a da Vinci robot so yeah, knowledge is power.

It’s a long process and each time you find something new you wish you had known that before. I was diagnosed with gleason 8 at age 51 three months ago. I have been researching ever since and still find out new important stuff. But I moved from being more inclined towards radiation to surgery.

Welcome to the club nobody wants to join. I'd recommend Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer Paperback – October 3, 2023. It's on Amazon for about $20 and it helped educate me fairly quickly on key points to consider. It's organized in a way that makes it pretty easy to drill down on things applicable to your specific situation. One other thought I'd share is that for me (I was diagnosed on 3/30) the more you educate yourself the better you'll be able to discuss treatment with prospective providers and the better you'll be able to make the decisions you'll have to make. It's like drinking from a firehose at first, but it's worth the effort to get knowledgeable as quickly as possible. I guess one thing that surprised me was I'd never really been seriously sick before, so I didn't appreciate that I'd have to ultimately select my course of treatment. Yeah, you'll get recommendations, but the final decision on how you proceed will ultimately come back to you. So it's pretty important to understand your options at each step as thoroughly as possible, especially since selecting an option might eliminate other options going forward. Best wishes.

I just finished a conversation with a guy I see at work. I had heard he was post op for prostate cancer, we even use the same doctor for the procedure. He was 100 percent pro for the surgery, his cancer spread outside of his prostate so now he is being treated for that. He gets a pet scan about every 3 months, they find the spot and hit it. He said the worst part for him was the week after. I’ve had a double hernia repair so I’m no stranger to having a few extra holes where they went in to do the repairs. I want as many years as I can get where practical, I hate that this has become part of my life for now but I’m not backing down from it

Doing the pet scan first really makes sense. If the cancer has spread outside the prostate, then treatment may be different. They could zap any metastasis and do the prostate as well, instead of removing it. Doing surgery would give you a much better picture of what your cancer looked like. Frequently the Gleason score changes after having a prostatectomy, since they can examine the full prostate.

My Gleeson was 4+3 and I’m still here 15 years later and I have a genetic problem. With the right treatment, you could go in to a long-term remission.