I’m glad for you. The severity of your disease and your treatment path pretty much mirrored mine. Now we both look to be survivors! High fives all around!!
Great news and congrats.
And may your “over the worst of the side effects” become “over all the side effects” in a reasonably short time!
Otherwise, I’ll just add my “hooray!” to the pile.
I am starting my radiation soon. My massage therapist said yesterday that some people get a benefit from something called Lymphatic Drainage Massage after radiation. I did some searching about that, and it seems legit, although typically unnecessary. Has anyone needed it? Or just did it?
The results finally came in. They found cancer in one of 12 samples:
ADENOCARCINOMA OF PROSTATE, GLEASON SCORE 3 + 3 = 6 (GRADE GROUP 1) INVOLVING 5% OF 1/1 CORE.
He’ll talk to the doctor on Monday, but the write up says the doctor will recommend active surveillance.
I had brachytherapy for mine 7 years ago. I just did another PSA - it is .03, fallen slightly from a year ago.
I had no side effects. It was done in one session in our surgery center. It was so painless for me that I didn’t even take one Tylenol after the surgery.
I was lucky enough to be near an expert, and he must have been considering how well it went. I suppose this is still a rare enough procedure that not every doctor does it. When I was researching it it seemed that if it were used radiation therapy could not be used after in case it didn’t work, but reading the linked Mayo Clinic page this seems to no longer be the case.
I caught my cancer early, so I understand this might not work for everyone, but I couldn’t be happier at how it went. Everything still works, btw. As well or better as can be expected given my age.
Every doctor and patient is very different, but my doctor told me 6 meant monitoring. He never recommended treatment for a score under 7. Best of luck to your husband.
He is wondering aloud if removing the prostate would mean he could sleep through the night. Do they do prostate “lumpectomies”?
Also, he’s taking a drug (lenalidamide) for his myeloma that increases his risk of developing other cancers. So he wants to know if that affects his odds.