Thanks, LSLGuy the for curly-brace embrace! Very manly. I totally didn’t grab your ass. 
Seriously: best wishes are a blessing, and thanks humbly for yours.
Squeegee, there are several possible options (radiation, surgery, active surveillance). Research them all before making a decision.
Your situation is similar to mine. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September of last year. My Gleason score was 7. In March, I had the robotic surgery. So far, my experience has been similar to Nightfall1’s.
I never worked at a place that did pediatric oncology, but it happens there, too. 
What?!? You mean parents abandon their sick children? :eek: Oh God, tell me it isn’t so…
Yep, and not just the stereotype of the father who “can’t handle it” and walks away. BOTH parents, or in some cases they use the hospital as a very expensive babysitter and go out partying while the child is undergoing treatments, or any number of other family dysfunctions that are exposed when a child becomes seriously ill.
Jesus wept.
Humanity is god’s idea of a practical joke. And he has a really sick sense of humor.
Returning to the topic at hand, squeegee’s calls for info and friends.
A lot of the support stuff at oncology practices is aimed at women because a) breast cancer is so prevalent and so well advertised, and b) women are the more social gender, whether by nature or nurture.
The end result is a lot of the available group support can run from tinged with pink to blazing, eyeball-frying PINK. Which can be off-putting to men who’re just as scared and just as at-risk for debility and death as are the ladies. Or worse yet, the women adopt the support group as a “safe space” women’s club where men are unwelcome interlopers by definition.
Humans are weird. Contrary to some clichés, stress and extreme situations do not (generally) bring out the best in people. More typically it’s just more of the usual, but turned up to eleventy-eleven. Plus an increasing dollop of abject dysfunction as each participant reaches their personal breaking point.
This looks like a potential source of support and info on prostate cancer.
I also get tired of all pink all the time and I’ve *had *breast cancer.
So I’ve been put in touch with a prostate cancer group in the next county, and I talked with the extremely nice, knowledgeable and helpful woman who has been involved with that group since 1994, and now runs it. She has put me in touch with one of the two doctors also long involved with that group, and I’m scheduled for a second opinion consult with him next Thursday.
As I understand it, this new urologist would reevaluate my diagnosis and direct me to more doctors at Stanford to seek whatever procedure I might need. Which all sounds like exactly what I should seek: more information, more advice, more choices.
And this raises my comfort level as well; I personally like my current urologist, but his office is unresponsive and has failed me in the past when I need even some basic things. When I did my 3rd biopsy a couple weeks ago, it took five days of calling them with no callbacks to finally find out that, yes, I would be under general anesthesia, yes I would need a ride home from the hospital, yes I would need 1-3 days off of work, yes I need blood work done that day for the procedure the following week. Five days. </rant>
My experience was the urologists wanted to use their knives.
The oncologists wanted to use radiation.
I didn’t like the risks of either. I would have a tough time adapting to a life without ejaculations.
That is when I contacted a NP. And he suggested sending the biopsy slides to the prostrate specific lab for another look.
As I mentioned earlier, the Stilson was reduced from a 7 to a 6. Which means it was less active. So, I decided to do the active surveillance game.
The biopsy was in 2008. No symptoms. Life is beautiful.
One thing I wish I had asked the urologist that did the biopsy was, what is the protocol for protecting the names and specimens? Was there a mix-up?
Keep gathering data. No need to rush into anything.
FWIW, the support group lady thought it very likely my new urologist will redo the pathology report at another lab, just as you did. So I am totally keeping your suggestion/experience in mind, harmonicamoon. The only down side I can see is that the cancer grade will be declared worse than expected, not better, but that’s something I would definitely want to know as well.
Well, I guess I’m fortunate enough to have no family to abandon me. 
It’s awful beyond reason that things like that happen in the world. :mad:
Luckily I have a very good friend, pretty much my best friend, who is a cancer survivor (breast cancer in 2009, spread to her lymph nodes), and she’s been incredibly supportive and understanding. She drove me to my last biopsy and wants to accompany me on doctor visits for support, which I will gratefully accept. I’m sure she’ll think of questions that wouldn’t occur to me, and it’s incredibly kind of her to just be there at all.
You can beat this, I did. “Can” is the optimal word, but unlikely. You will likely be sterile if you arent already.
They put some radioactive particles in my Prostate, took less than a hour, I took two days off. Not much pain, handled my 800 mg Ibrupophen. You pee and ejaculate a little blood for a while. That last is a little gross, so dont spring it as a surprise. Yes, once you recover a bit, you are often encourages to rub a few out to clear that out.
Your ex-GF is a stupid-ass bitch. :mad:
I don’t care how great a doctor is, if you can’t work with his/her office and get responses in a timely manner, kick them to the curb.
Sounds like you’re doing everything right.
Seriously. I talked to that office today and was told it would take a week to give me all my blood test and biopsy results they have on file (we’re talking 6 pieces of paper), plus $25 dollars. This is a one-doctor + a couple office assistants + 1 nurse sometimes outfit, not a mass conglomerate.
Actually, all my docs are part of a mass conglomerate, and I can often get my blood and other test results the same day online through the patient portal. I’d probably want to take my business (as it were) elsewhere.
Agree. I was supposed to get a referral to a surgeon and oncologist from these clowns, it’s been four work days… I wonder if I’ll ever hear from the that office about my referrals.
I have a new doc, I’ll pursue that for now, but I wonder.
If it were me, I’d call them every day, twice a day if necessary, all the while being very nice and cordial. "Good morning, Mrs. Jones, it’s squeegee again. I hope your day is going well. Just reminding you–and I’m sure you haven’t forgotten–about that referral? Could you get to that before noon/the end of the day/tomorrow?" But relentless, like Chinese water torture. (Are we allowed to say that anymore?)
You are not in a hurry for this. No rush. A few days or weeks or even months wont make a difference.
Your records are your property. As far as I know this is true USA-wide. They might be able to charge a small fee for photocopying but even that is borderline and $25 is ridiculous. You need new doctors for sure!