Post Surgery-Final Path

[Dreamweaverman]

Hey All, So I am coming up on my catheter removal tomorrow, and now I am anxious about the final path. I hear most people fully recover from prostate cancer, but was wondering if anyone had issues of reoccurrence or other challenges or concerns.

[jimbay]

Keep up the posts. I'm 8 weeks behind you. Almost exactly the age, numbers, etc. And I'm completely scared. I'll post too.

[cpcohen]

>>>

. . . I hear most people fully recover from prostate cancer, but was wondering if anyone had issues of reoccurrence or other challenges or concerns.

<<<

Many docs avoid giving their patients good information about how likely they are to be "cured", and how troubled they'll be, by the side-effects of treatment.

"Most people fully recover" is a wild over-generalization. First, it can mean two different things:

1. You won't have a recurrence of prostate cancer.

2. You won't have long-term side-effects from the treatment.

The answer to (1) (statistically) depends on what the characteristics of your tumor are, and how advanced it was when it was treated, and how it was treated, and (we're pretty sure) how skilled the doc was, who treated it. There's a set of calculators here:

mskcc.org/nomograms/prostate

You can put in your numbers, and find out (roughly) what _your_ chance is, of having a recurrence.

The answer to (2) is:

. . . You'll probably have some long-term side-effects from treatment.

Those are most-commonly ED (erectile dysfunction) and incontinence (for surgery). Others can speak for radiation treatments. ADT (used for advanced or recurrent prostate cancer, and sometimes in combination with radiation) has its own can of worms.

Stay in touch, we've all been on this road.

. Charles

[Dreamweaverman in reply to cpcohen]

Thanks Charles, for information and being candid. I think My surgeon was optimistic and realistic I think. He said there is. 40% chance my cancer could return in the next 10 years but because I had surgery, other treatments (radiation) was possible. Stay strong!

[cpcohen in reply to Dreamweaverman]

"40% chance of recurrence in 10 years" sounds pretty honest, if you had a large tumor, or a high (4+3 or greater) Gleason grade.

I give full credit to the doc for that.

[David1958]

Every man who has prostate cancer is scared. If you had surgery (like me) this is something the sugeon will never tell you. When the prostate is removed, however long the prostate is, that is how much urethra is gone also since it runs through the prostate. In order to reconnect the urethra still connected to the bladder to the part still connected to your prick, that missing urethra has to be made up somewhere. Yes indeed, it comes from the part connected to your prick and will shorten your beloved prick by that much.