It's about 4 weeks out from surgery around the end of January and time to get my blood checked at UT. Now, the goal is to have almost nothing show up since the surgery removed the entire prostate, and with it, the cancer. To be more specific, the PSA number should read "equal to or less than" 0.05. One week later the results came back at 0.09, which is above the expected result. The doctor (Roerhborn) assured me that this is normal since I'm only about a month out of surgery and it takes time for the blood stream to be cleared of the protein which gives off the reading of the PSA number. He tells me to check back in another 4 weeks or so to see if it's lower, same, or higher. A rapid increase in the number indicates that cancer has spread to other parts of the body and further treatment is necessary.
Speaking of further treatment, my wife and I thought that it would be wise to do research to see if this was necessary. She spoke with an oncologist, who we met through a church member, to get advice on this. She was told that it would be wise and was referred to another one at a different hospital. We made the appointment and drove there when the day came. The oncologist received the data on me a made his assessment. Now, I have to explain something: One of the things that the data revealed is that I have what's called "positive margins" meaning that there is prostatic tissue that remains inside me where the prostate was which may (or may not) contain cancer cells. These cancer cells can become dormant and die off or grow. Knowing this, the doctor recommended that I should immediately start radiation and hormone treatment. Now, understand this - whatever state I was in at this time regarding continence or anything else in that area would be locked in with no chance of physical improvement, healing of nerves, etc. Plus, hormone treatment would cause such side effects like hot flashes, tenderness in the breasts (yeah, you read right), and etc. again. Think of it as early menopause for men (yikes)! We left and thought about it for a few days. Dr. Roerhborn received the oncologist's recommendation for me in his office and was "furious!!!" He told us later that he immediately sent him an email asking him why in the world would he recommend treatment with only 1 PSA reading right after surgery!!!??? By the way, he told us this when I went back a few weeks later after my second PSA result which was "less than or equal to" 0.05 which is undetectable!!! Praise the LORD!!!!!
We then found out that the first hospital (Methodist), where I had the biopsy, gets PSA results out to the thousandths, called "ultra sensitive," whereas the normal PSA readings are out to the hundredths. We went back there and requested their reading. One week later the results came back and it read 0.008!!! We gave this reading to Dr. Roerhborn and he was floored at the number and exclaimed, "That's pretty d@#m low." We laughed as he followed that with a modest, "Excuse me." He then went on to vent about why in the world would the oncologist recommend that I get treatment (with its side effects) after only 1 PSA reading when I may not even need to go through all of that!
I kept going back to both UT and Methodist for PSA readings every 2-3 months as was needed. The UT readings remained the same! At Methodist, the "ultra sensitive" reading jumped up just a little with 0.012. However this is still below the normal reading and remains in the "undetectable" range!!! Dr. Roehrborn stated that with the ultra sensitive readings you'll get a few "ticks" of variation in the reading, especially in the thousandths place, so there's no need for alarm. Next reading, around late July 07, my reading was 0.011. The urologist at Methodist told me, "You're doing good. I'll see you again in 6 months!" So, spreading out my visits for the PSA blood test is a good sign!
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