Absolutely - good work for those in remission, and good luck for those still undergoing treatment and followups!
I’m late to this thread but want to report that after my first prostate reduction surgery 11 years ago I did the catheter removal myself at home. I can honestly say it simply wasn’t that big of a deal. A very strange and VERY unpleasant sensation/experience, but not the least bit painful.
Since I was diagnosed with cancer with a biopsy four years ago, it’s just been watchful waiting, with testing every three months and one follow up MRI three years ago.
And then last week I got a call from the clinic that said my PSI suddenly jumped from 7.7ish to 91!
Scheduled for another MRI next week and then we will see. The doctor said that surgery is a consideration but we need to look at the MEI first.
They also redid the PSA test but I won’t know that result until next appointment.
Yowza! Good luck with that.
Yikes! Best wishes.
My husband is going in for more prostate testing later this week, i think. (Maybe early next week.) His PSA level is up. But not that high.
Best of luck, and good job on jumping right on it.
Saturday. And that’s just an MRI. He doesn’t know what comes next.
Good luck to you both.
Oh fuck I hate waiting. No information available until after the MRI next Wednesday, and the doctor appointment after they.
Japanese doctors are terrible at providing information to patients, especially with cancer. They used to never tell patients that they had cancer.
My doctor is elderly and seems old school. When I was in the States and went with my mother to the hospital, the doctors were so much better at communicating.
I’m hoping I hear tomorrow on my PSA test.
We are here for you
If they’re not forthcoming, try the gaijin smash.
Good luck; I hope a smash isn’t necessary. But you need actual factual answers. Timely as they become available.
My own experience with my late wife’s eventually fatal cancer and my own numerous but minor skin cancer issues is that the pacing of the medical industry seems designed to drive patients, and especially American patients, absolutely bonkers.
Lots of seemingly pointless delay, then a mad flurry of activity, then lots of seemingly pointless delay, then another mad flurry, etc.
Some of that delay is legit; the pace of the bureaucracy is only X. During treatment, some of the delay is legit; we’re gonna do Y to you and it’ll be three weeks before we can see even a hint of whether that’s starting to work or not. Biology is legitimately a pretty leisurely counterparty to whatever they’re doing.
But delays beyond that imposed by biology and and smidgen of bureaucracy need to be aggressively managed.
It’s really frustrating.
They only give partial information and then leave you in the dark. It’s not intentionly so much as they just don’t think about what kind of information the patient needs.
Here’s just one example. My clinic scheduled me to have the MRI next week at a local hospital. I had to go and pick up the necessary paperwork at the clinic today. They gave me the instructions, but then there’s nothing about the next step. Only after I asked did I find out that they will get the results and will let me know when we can have the next appointment.
Why can’t they say all this at first? “The MRI is scheduled for next Wednesday. Normally, it takes about a week to get the results, and we will contact you to make an appointment.”
Another problem is that while many people think the Japan is super advanced, they operate 40 years in past.
They retested the PSA, but there isn’t a way to get the information without a doctor appointment. I understand that in the States a lot of places have the patient’s chart online, and the patient can check themselves, but they don’t do it here.
The whole process hasn’t advanced past faxes. They made the appointment to get an appointment for me at the local hospital, but can’t do it via email. I also had to drive 20 minutes to get physical pieces of paper to present at the hospital. The doctor’s request is in a sealed envelope that I need to take with me to the hosptial. Why?
That sounds horrible.
My doctor said that moving to the standard online system was painful for them, but i love being able to make appointments in the app, get test results in the app, and send questions and requests in the app.
Holy Shit and Hip Hip Hooray.
PSA test came back at 1.4!
I may never know what happened on that prior test, but a 1.4 is a great reading. Well below the normal line of 4.0. That 5.8 made no sense at all.
Well, I guess I see again in 3 months.
Yay!
Does that mean you are back to just monitoring?
Fantastic! I am so relieved for you.
At this point yes. A much better place to be.
I’ve been pretty worried I was going to have go through at very least another biopsy and scan but more so worried about needing surgery. And of course in the back of my mind was the what if they can’t stop it.
I’m very glad I opted for the retest before going back to Cancer Specialists (MSK).
Hooray!
Oh wow! That’s a great reading and great news! What a weird blip. Hope it continues reading low.