Diagnosed at 40

Olee said:

Thanks
Thanks for the support. Stories like your own give me hope everyday, and encourage me to continue researching my options. My doctor downplayed the robotic surgery to a degree stating that sometimes it's good to be hands on, but that if I wanted to pursue that option he could lead me in the right direction. As mentioned in my story, my wife and I are basically newlyweds even though we have been a couple for years, so intimacy is an extremely important issue with us. My doctor encouraged me to have surgery within 6 weeks, so I am looking into options everyday and have already begun the planning. Thanks again for the support!

Olee said:

Thanks
Thanks again for the feedback and support. The roofing gun scenario used to compare in the biopsy made me laugh, so true. I hated that procedure, mainly because I had complications. A week later I start bleeding out of nowhere so to keep my system clear I start drinking more water, a few bottles maybe. Hours later I'm bleeding but can't urinate, what an experience in pain that was! You can see how I may be a little nervous going into any surgery. I'm having scans done Friday so I suppose I'll go from there as far as treatment and timeline. I am however about 99% sold on robotic surgery.

Olee said:

Test Yesterday
Thanks for the encouragement Roger. I spent the day at the hospital yesterday getting CT and Bone scans, now it's a sit and wait for those results. I am ready to choose the DR and the surgery date, so the sooner that's set the more defined focus I can project. Again I appreciate all of the support.

Olee said:

Rainy Day Brings Good News
I'm one of those rare individuals who loves an occasional rainy day, not just sprinkles, I mean a soaking, cold, all day rainy day! I woke up yesterday to one of those days and instead of going to work I wanted to sit back and read one of my books, drink another cup of coffee, savor the weather. I had been waiting since Friday to hear of the test results and the pending news was making me a nervous wreck to say the least. I don't know if it was my expectations or the expectations of my family, thier calls asking, " Have you heard anything?" that had me on edge. Finally as I was at work my phone rang, my familiar, "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" ringtone, how fitting, which bit of news would I recieve? The nurse explained that the letter would reach my mailbox anyday but that she would read it to me over the phone. I took a deep breath as she read, bone scan, no sign of metastasis, ct scan, no sign of metastasis, please make appointment with surgeon to schedule discussed procedure. I was elated, I had her read it again and then I said thank you as if she had somehow decided my fate. This was definately an ace I was dealt and I can win with this hand. Yesterday I somehow felt as though I had an upper hand or a head start on PC, and I can definately beat it going from here. I'm making appointments right away with surgeons, and hope to set a date as soon as possible.

Olee said:

Test Yesterday
Thanks for the encouragement Roger. I spent the day at the hospital yesterday getting CT and Bone scans, now it's a sit and wait for those results. I am ready to choose the DR and the surgery date, so the sooner that's set the more defined focus I can project. Again I appreciate all of the support.

Olee said:

Sounding Off
Well I've been very peaceful throughout this whole ordeal, always taking things in stride and moving on, but this morning I became I bit angry. I became angry about the cancer at first, then I refocused on the plan and caught sight again of the future, then I focused the anger on some issues I've dealt with lately concerning health care providers. I'll describe a few issues here and maybe you guys can tell me if I'm just out of line or maybe I'm being a little too allowing. I'm not a "wooah me, I'm sick" kinda guy at all, but I do expect a certain level of concern from the healthcare industry. The way the news was even broken to me was a shock. I visited the doctor on a scheduled appointment to discuss the biopsy results only a day after being released from the hospital from complications. He entered the room and said, " I hear you have some cancer in your prostate." It was an assumption that the staff at the hospital had informed me of the diagnosis. My wife held her breath in shock and I just stood there speechless. He told me how my Gleason score was 7 and I needed surgery right away, 4-6 weeks was his suggestion. He informed me that scans would be the next step before scheduling the surgery. Immediatly upon leaving the office we stepped up to the desk to schedule the scans and was told, "that woman has gone for the day we'll call you or mail you a letter." My doctor called the next morning,Nov 21st (LAST CONTACT, verbally or in person with any physician) to ask how I was doing and to find out if I scheduled the scans. I repeated what we were told and he said, call them today if they don't call you back, you need those right away. I called and left messages with the urology dept. who then transfered me to the person scheduling the scans where I left more messages. November 25th my wife called and I called, both asking for the doctor to call us back, finally the nurse called us back at which time we were transfered to the scheduling woman again who never returns calls. November 26 after 8 phone calls, I finally call the switch board operator and bluntly said, " Your hospital has diagnosed me with cancer, you guys told me I need scans to find out if it's spreading but none of your staff will call me back to schedule it, will you help me? She transfered me to the actual technician who found my orders that had been faxed over on the 21st of November and scheduled my appointment for December 5th, 15 days after being diagnosed and being told that "You need these tests right away!" Of course while I was there no one told me the next step, how I would get the results, do I need to make an appointment etc, so I asked and was told on December 5th, your doctor will have the results on his computer on Monday December 8th, they will "probably" call you. Don't you love the uncertainty here? These people have treated me like it's a check in the mail or something. So Monday rolls around and I hear nothing, finally back to the phones. I call the urology department and ask them about the results and I get a "what test results?" Finally they have my doctors nurse call me back and she explains that there will be a letter typed up by the doctor and mailed anyday, but that she will call me by Wed December 10th and read the letter over the phone. Wed goes by and no phone call and no letter in the mail, so finally I call the urology dept. I explain calmly about the test at which time she interupts me and says " if you had tests done Friday the results won't be ready for 10 days and you'll recieve a letter." I tried to reason with her and explain what the radiology dept had told me, but she was forward with her "10 days" explination. She even became loud and said "sir I'm sorry, but you're just gonna have to wait for the mail!" Now this is the point where my blood pressure rose a few notches. I'm envisioning a letter sitting on a desk somewhere with my information and here's this rudacrat for hire refusing to help me. Finally I'm able to softly interupt her and explain that the nurse promised me that she would read the letter over the phone, at which time she replied,"well that might be possible,I'll see if she wants to do that for you." I was transferred to the nurse where she read verbatum the letter that the doctor had typed. From the way she read the letter it was apparent that she wasn't interpreting the information, merely relaying it to me. I was still very thankful for her words and the fact that she took the time to read aloud what the doctor had discovered. I asked where do I go from here and she told me to make an appointment with a surgeon. I called the urology dept. and made an appointment which was the equivalent of throwing darts at a board of names, thanks for the direction I thought. Believe me guys, I am very complimentary of healthcare professionals. It takes ALOT to get me to voice a frustration, my wife says I let too much go by the wayside. I simply allow for human error or bad days as I consider everyone to be human like me. This whole experience though has left me questioning if I want to continue in the same direction. I still to this day have not recieved a letter detailing my scans, which I really thought should have been discussed in person maybe in a "follow -up" visit? I have not spoken to a doctor about any results,complaints,cancer staging etc in almost a month. I would have thought there would have been at least a phone call from a doctor. Thank God for my fellow survivors and the internet or I would be in total darkness right now and have no direction. I basically feel as though someone said, " You have prostate cancer, good luck!"

shipjim said:

After the tests
I had two biopsys over a 3 yr span of time. Last time I asked him to shoot all of them at one time to get it over. Did the robotic and after 3 yrs.have little problems. No sex and a few dribbles. Not to be droll but you might want to consider sperm banks for future children as the surgery will nix that part no matter what else.
Keep posting and let us know how it works out. Remember you'll get to look at the grass from the green side not the roots and that's a BIG deal.