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Post operative PSA result

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User
Posted 28 Jan 2017 at 07:37

I don't know if you have read my profile. It's quite up to date I didn't want treatment at all at the start of my journey but ended up being press ganged into it. My results are pretty awful and something relentless is growing inside me. I was obsessed with maintaining a normal love life and after what I was left with post op there was NO way RT was coming anywhere near me especially when told it was non curative. I may still do it at some point. Pain is a great persuader.
Maybe I got you wrong. So technically you are in a great position post op and believe me it can be an enormous struggle and well over a year but you might get great ED recovery like I have. Why not in that case just watch the psa a while. Hopefully it will be years before you need RT if at all. But it will be salvage then and a huge percentage of people who have salvage RT fail again later on. I've got without doubt treatment starting again in one form or another , but I'm very QOL rather than quantity , but that's just me and my outlook. I don't " love life " very much and never have , and to be frank this disease and the treatment and the side-effects along with the endless mental pain have made it worse.
Go with your heart mate !


If life gives you lemons , then make lemonade
User
Posted 28 Jan 2017 at 22:51
Chris

I've read your profile and lots of your posts and have learnt a lot from you.

I had non nerve sparing. I'm being injected on Wednesday by my urologist. Do the injections always work? And do they work if you have radiotherapy?

The urologist is considering me for a penile implant. I'm not too sure as it's an irreversible procedure.

Apart from that, am I better to proceed now with adjuvant or to wait for salvage? Only a crystal ball could tell me that. Most times, I'm a cautious but proactive person who takes control of a situation. With this one, it's really, really hard to know what to do. Part of me wants to wait and see just in case it never comes back, but I think that a tad unrealistic.

Sorry you've had such a torrid time.

W

User
Posted 28 Jan 2017 at 23:39

The injections don't work for everyone. For some, they work but not consistently while others find them to be fantastic every time. Radiotherapy makes no difference to the efficacy of the injections or pellets.

John waited - it took 2 years to convince him that the op hadn't nailed it. It meant that he had a decent break to fully recover before starting again but since the PSA seems to be creeping again it may be that the 2 years was an opportunity for any rogue cells to embed.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
User
Posted 28 Jan 2017 at 23:43

PS don't be rushed down the penile implant route too quickly - you could go through all that surgery and then if the doctor is right and you end up on hormones sooner or later, the implant will be redundant.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
User
Posted 28 Jan 2017 at 23:55
Age is an issue with the implant - if I wait until three years of hormone therapy are over, they'll probably tell me I'm too old!!!
User
Posted 29 Jan 2017 at 09:33

Even I , who has literally tried everything and driven my own recovery , would be very loathe to go down the implant route Walter.
As Lyn commented the injections you will be supplied with can be very hit or miss. I never really had true success but enough to allow penetrative sex. However I suffered awful after pain with them , and it didn't take long before I stopped using them like many men. But try all the forms of Alprostadil -- injection , pellets , cream etc. And ask ask ask if you can try Invicorp25 which has just been the bees knees for date nights. I think you'll get enough success one way or another that you'll think again about an implant. And buy a durex soft ring from the supermarket. Seems to make all the difference to many men. Good luck


If life gives you lemons , then make lemonade
User
Posted 29 Jan 2017 at 09:50
Thanks Chris.
User
Posted 29 Jan 2017 at 12:18

Dad used caverject for years and never had any problems - however, he needed a very high dose and so has always been on the single chamber rather than double chamber version.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
 
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