Recently diagnosed, need advice from survivors

tarhoosier said:

your choice
Thumper:
The choice for your situation that is clear and unequivocal is...Active surveillance. This is not doing nothing. This is monitoring your condition for as long as it takes before you move to another option. Perhaps a very long time with no regret, no side effects, no cost other than the monitoring you should be doing and that you would be doing after any invasive treatment. Listen, you cancer has been in your prostate for some time before it was identified and you did just fine, right? Your numbers are well within the limits for active surveillance at all top cancer centers. No one is pushing you to treatment now so just lay back and enjoy your life now. Wait until your body tells you something, do not respond with your emotions.

guards said:

problems down the road
I finally saw someone here chose actice survelance. I had Brachy about 32 months ago at age 63. I was fine for the first 15 months or so psa down to 0.2 from 11.2 no problems etc. However the last 17 months have been not fun. Developed a BAD infection. Had to have 2 turps and numerous catheters installed in emergency room as my spincter closed completely. Last foley cath. was in for 2 months. Then I started self cath to avoid the emergency room and in Jan. this year finally became totally incontinent. Now I Go in thursday for my next sugery to install a stint ,that will hopefully allow me to have a artificial spincter installed if the stint heals correctly. If I had it to do over I would have chosen the watchful waiting and availabe treatment to try and lower the psa. I used to have a fairly active life ,had a membership at the local public golf course, rode the bike path near my house almost daily. Even bought a recumbent bike after the infection to try and stay riding but I would wet through everything with in a few blocks so I gave up. So I now set home and change my pads and gain weight. My Diabeties got totally out of control and I'm back on insulin ,I had the diabeties in control h1ac of 5.8 down from 12 till this mess. Given my choices I would have preferred the 5-10 years I had left to the life I now live. Please consider quality of life if things go wrong. I know so many locally that have so many problems that would have certainly proceeded much slower. Yes the PC won't kill me but this lifestyle may do it quicker seriously conside active waiting please. My neighbor had external radiation and he and I agree. He had more problems than I do.