Decision Time

Entry 10

Written October 22th

Our good friend Graham who is a doctor in Selkirk has helped us to consolidate and process much of the information that has come to us. He also took our  last lingering questions to the specialists and then interpreted their responses so that for us the choice became more obvious.

I've elected to have a prostatectomy.  Now to tell our family and friends.

The following is from my e-mail to Hugh, my friend and June paddling partner:

"This is not a 'gimme' operation. I'll be on the table  for 4 hours and in the hospital for 3-5 days. The catheter stays in for 2 weeks.

My body is in a no holds barred battle with the cancer in my prostate; indeed it may have been the reason why I got Giardia and you didn't considering we drank mostly the same lake and creek water this spring. In retrospect it was probably fortuitous I contracted Giardia because it was while they were trying to figure that out that they twigged to the spiking PSA rate.


The docs all strongly recommended I get the flu shot including the Pneumococcal vaccine shot because of that immune deficiency. We have both had our flu shots as of today. Margaret & I have always got the flu shots to good effect over the years so there was no need to convince me.


In any event after long discussions with the Urologist, the Radiation-oncologist, and particularly my doctor all of whom have been amazingly patient, helpful, and objective about options other than their own field of expertise, Margaret and I decided to go the surgical route. I won't bore you with the details as to why mainly because it's complicated as hell.


What it boils down to is this - my bone scan was clean as was my CT scan, so to the best of their knowledge the cancer hasn't migrated outside of the prostate into the bones or organs. The key then is to get it before it does.  If it does get out the highway is via the lymph nodes in the pelvic area. Surgery is the only way to find out if it has metastasized because when they open you up they biopsy the lymph nodes while you are on the table and remove them just in case they don't get all the cancerous tissue during the surgery (microscopic cells invisible to the naked eye hiding in the walls and lining to the other organs). Radiology accepts the CT Scan as the truth and does not address the lymph nodes. I have trouble accepting that.

In any event I go in next Tuesday for another conference with the Urologist (Surgeon) and he will give me a date as to when the offending gland and the related bits and pieces are to be removed. I would expect it to be within a month."

Article on Surgery