Calling it quits with pulverizing my prostate.

[saynerken]

I've had my psa drawn for 7 years.

At first it was 9.3 and had a biopsy (12 core) come back negative with no abnormal cells.

Next year it was 11.0 and had 50 core saturation biopsy which came back negative with no abnormal cells.

Next year psa down to 7.1

Next year psa down to 6.0

Next year psa up to 7.0

Next year psa down to 4.6

all years normal dre

This year psa shot up to 9.2 again.

This after I had molar removed and treated for root canal on a different tooth. Also told I need treatment for gingivitis.

Last year my doctor told me my chances of having an aggressive cancer after 7 years and 62 needles in my prostate was infinitesimal.

Starting to wonder if all this psa testing is worth it for me. If I never had psa tested years ago I would have saved a lot of pain and stress especially considering they only save approximately 1 life in 1000.

I'm 65 years old and never had any other symptoms.

Think I'll talk to my doctor and tell him I'll chance it at this point. To much stress for such a small difference in mortality. I guess if I was still in my 50's and had a high psa I might still check it.

Good luck to all.

[Tall_Allen]

PSA is obviously not a good indicator for you because of your prostatitis. If you want to have annual blood tests, you can try PHI instead.

[saynerken in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thanks but after 60 biopsy needles i think I'm done with all the stress not to mention all the side effects. Like I said if I never agreed to a psa I would never have gone thru any of this. Thanks and good luck to all.

[strummer]

I consider you very fortunate. I only wish my 66 yr old husband had a PSA test. Instead he had several DRI thanks to new protocols because of high psa false positives. He is the 1 in 1000 that could have been saved.

Now has stage IV prostate ca because his DRI never showed an overly enlarged prostate. I feel both tests are valuable.

[charlesmeyers1964]

my best buddy had the same thing and finally the dx he had a enlarged prostrate

charlie

[tom67inMA]

I'm the polar opposite. Had my PSA tested several times in my late 40s and the results were (from memory) 2.0, 2.5, and 2.0. 13 months after that last 2.0 I went to a urologist with symptoms and my PSA came back at 216 and the cancer was already in my bones. MO said cancer has probably been developing for years, but wasn't leaking PSA into the blood stream.

We need a better screening test.

[Hidden in reply to tom67inMA]

I'm curious if you ever got a DRE. That's what got me sent to a urologist. My PSA was only 2.7.

[tom67inMA in reply to Hidden]

Nope, no DRE until time of diagnosis where a "nodule" was found in my prostate. I also found it strange that most of the left side of my prostate was cancer free, it was almost all on the right side (insert "all right" joke here).

[Hidden in reply to tom67inMA]

Same here. Tumor activity right side only. I now appreciate better how good my PCP was -- he subjected to me to a DRE at annual physical every time from early 40's onward. With a change in insurance and doctor I had to insist on a DRE. Not fun for either party but it proved beneficial for me.

[j-o-h-n]

"Think I'll talk to my doctor and tell him I'll chance it at this point". <===<<< YOU

"Be what you is and not what you ain't, cause if you ain't what you is, you is what you ain't."

It's your call.... <====<<< ME

Guys here are trying to help.... God bless them....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Saturday 01/26/2019 1:11 PM EST

[Currumpaw]

The PHI as Tall_Allen advised is one thing. You had a 12 core biopsy, the infamous TRUS no doubt! The following year a 50 core, saturation biopsy using what technology? An ultra sound again? Seems like you only got the simplest of PSA tests as well. It makes it easy to manipulate patients when they are wet behind the ears and they receive little information upon which to base testing and treatment decisions offered them. Even a free and total PSA test would have given you more info. You might want to think of a mp 3.0 T MRI by someone like Dr. Busch in Georgia. Saturation biopsies can cause irreversible, harmful effects.

Many biopsies are now done in bore, real time using a 3.0 MRI. Even the once revered Artemis using a MRI image fused to an ultrasound screen seems antiquated.

Multi core biopsies! Once a group of business men contacted the RI lottery requesting that the lottery sell them EVERY possible number for the upcoming drawing simply because they would HAVE to win and have a handsome profit--if-- they were the only ones to pick that number. The RI Lottery Commission denied their request as we should when a urologist wishes to do a saturation biopsy. If they can't see an abnormality why let them literally rip you up with a saturation biopsy? Hmmm? The more cores they take because they can't see what should be biopsied, the greater chances of success in a hit! The number of biopsy cores taken during a 3.0 in bore are usually low in number.

Be careful of fluoroquinolones if you have any more biopsies. Rocephin and Cefdinir are drugs that can replace the fluoros without the dangerous and sometimes permanent side effects that the fluoros have become infamous for.

[saynerken in reply to Currumpaw]

Problem is now if I get the mri done my Urologist says it probably will come back suspicious due to 72 needles and scar tissue. Then he would want another biopsy.

[Currumpaw in reply to saynerken]

Get a 3.0 MRI guided biopsy done read by someone who is competent doing these. In bore, real time!

Time for the old technology to be put to bed. If a scar is biopsied once then on the third biopsy would a site that had been biopsied twice before look even more suspicious using the weak 1.5 MRI? It would biopsied again, right?

[Clark6965]

My husband went through the same thing for years. Finally did an MRI and found aggressive cancer. Gleason 9. Can't rely totally on biopsies.

[saynerken in reply to Clark6965]

Sorry to hear that. Hope he is doing well.

My Urologist told me my chances are infidesamal after over 60 biopsy needled and normal dre for 7 years with no symptoms

and only a free psa of around 20 over last 5 years.

He also told me of Mri but also said they could find a suspicious area which most likely could be a non aggressive cancer that most men have nearing age 70. Most men are never affected by those and end up dying from somthing else. Not sure how much harm

I'm doing to myself with even more biopsies not to mention possible surgery after mri.

Crazy how my psa could go from 4.0 to 9.3 to 11 back down

to 8 then 7 and eventually down to 4.6 then jump to 9.2 in a year.

[saynerken]

Also I've read that the one in one thousand that can be saved from prostate cancer also shows that of the 1000 cases 3 men will die from the treatment. 1 heart attack and 2 from infection related reasons and 40 will have permanent Ed.

or incontinence.