Don't Know What Is Going On

curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Oldguyrealy said:
Well got Prostate Cancer. Had it removed and Radiation.

PSA is coming back up. They are talking about shots to bring my Testosterone down and maybe Chemo.

So probably will go through the change.
Click to expand...
Blocking agents are better than a orchiectomy. I don't know your age, but ask your oncologist about the histopathology of your tumor and talk to your oncologist about adding in cannabis. Depending on type of cancer you can kill cancer cells with an full spectrum cannabis oil as a treatment adjunct (usually somewhere around 2 grams/day). Also it can help with the side effects of CA treatment.

Good luck and I wish you the best in your journey.
 
StonedGardener

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
So sorry stoner dude. I'm 69 also....had my prostate taken out ( DaVinici robotic surgery) about 6 months ago. A real " pain in the ass" ( actually it was my stomach muscles that took a beating).Smart move getting rid of that damn thing. I wanted to use mine for muskie fishing but the hospital wanted it for research. Putting up with a " leaky faucet" for a while beats a " dirt-nap". Hold tight ! I'm sure it will work out.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Oldguyrealy said:
Well got Prostate Cancer. Had it removed and Radiation.

PSA is coming back up. They are talking about shots to bring my Testosterone down and maybe Chemo.

So probably will go through the change.
Click to expand...
I'm dealing with prostate issues myself at 68 and have for about 5 years now. I just drove 6 hours down to Edmonton for a hi-rez MRI on Monday in a f'n snow storm for it too. My urologist has been bugging me to go down there and after my latest PSA test jumping up about 2.5 points to 16.9 I figured I better get this much better scan done. At my first scan about 4 years ago my prostate was 60cc in size and getting me up a few times a night to pee but never shutting off the urge to go. I started using zinc and a few other things to deal with that and it's way better now.

At my 2nd scan about 18 months after the first peeing was more difficult and the prostate had now grown to 75cc so another scan was planned for a year later but took 18 months to get. This time I started taking a small dose of RSO every evening about 4 months before the scan and not only did my PSA drop 2 points down to 12.2 but my prostate shrunk down to 55cc so was smaller than at the first scan.

My urologist was gobsmacked and wanted to know what I was doing so I told him. He already knew I was using supplements to deal with urinary issues so wasn't surprised. We then decided at my suggestion that a scan every 2 years would be good enough with a PSA test every 6 months. Was about the same at the next test but after a year it had moved back up to 14.4 and he started pushing for me to make the trip down and get a biopsy. I agreed to the trip but a huge no to the biopsy unless something looks bad in this new scan.

When this all started I got a couple books from the library to research all the options and learn about this bothersome organ and how to deal with it. At my age I'm about 75% likely to have prostate cancer. That's a pretty scary statistic until you realize that about 95% of prostate cancers will grow so slowly that you'll die of something else before it ever even makes you ill. Down in the states they are building billion dollar clinics who's only function is to rip out prostates. Big money in that and a huge amount of men are falling for scare tactics to get this often unneeded and horribly invasive surgery when watching and waiting could leave them whole for the rest of their lives. After 5 years if my problem was an aggressive cancer I'd be dead or without a prostate by now so I'm sticking with the plan to monitor it.

The books I read were, 'The Whole Life Prostate Book' by Dr. H. Ballentine Carter who is the preeminent expert in the diagnosis and management of prostate disease at John Hopkins. It's about 650 pages but readable by us poor laypeople and doesn't bog you down in medical jargon. First I read a lot of stuff about my enlarged prostate and fixing that seem nastier than the problems I was dealing with. Then I read it cover to cover rereading the first parts I read.

The 2nd one was, The Great Prostate Hoax: How Big Medicine Hijacked the PSA Test and Caused a Public Health Disaster by Richard J. Ablin, Ronald Piana. Dr. Ablin is the man who came up with the PSA test back in 1970 and is appalled how it is being used to scaring men and their loved ones into getting life altering treatments and surgeries that a great many didn't need. Think corporate greed here.

I have all my junk functioning like it did when I was 40 and it worked great then so for now I'm a happy camper. I do take a fistfull of pills etc every day and will likely add more down the road but I'd rather do that than take pharma meds with all their horrible side effects so on none for anything now. I've added a larger dose of CBD oil to the RSO and that should help even more. Sure has helped tons with my joint pain and those horrible mornings are gone. Still achy but nothing like what it used to be.

I have very high T for a man my age. About the same as an 18yo guy my doc tells me and that can cause the PSA to rise as well. It rises as you age even if everything is fine.

I'll find out the results by Friday I think or it could be next week. The urologist will call to discuss the results when he has time. Busy man as he's the only urologist up here in northern Alberta and I have a 2 hour drive to go see him as it is so we do as much by phone as we can.

If anybody has any questions about various supplements to help with urinary issues just ask tho if you've had the operation I don't know that they would help. Do your kegel exercises!

:peace:
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Oldguyrealy said:
Well got Prostate Cancer. Had it removed and Radiation.

PSA is coming back up. They are talking about shots to bring my Testosterone down and maybe Chemo.

So probably will go through the change.
Click to expand...
I'm a little puzzled here. How does your PSA rise when you no longer have a prostate to produce the Prostate Specific Antigen required to even show in a test? That's something I'd want to get the doc to explain to me.

I have a buddy here that I give RSO to but he's not taking it seriously. Stage 4 and he had a bad reaction to the last chemo they tried so have nothing else to offer him so it's the oil or nothing. Just does what the doc says and doesn't do his own research or nothing. I try to impress on him that it's his life he's dealing with here but he doesn't seem to look at it the same as me I guess. He's about 5 years younger than me and we have the same urologist.

With some chemos you shouldn't be taking concentrated cannabis oils as they can either cause the drugs to stay in your system longer so doses will get too high or can cause it to be eliminated faster reducing the dosage in the blood. If your doc is willing to work with you you can get tested and he can adjust the doses to work with the pot. I does the same thing to an enzyme in your blood as grapefruit does so if you're warned to avoid grapefruit while taking a certain drug then the same warning applies to pot as they do the same thing.

:peace:
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
OldMedUser said:
I'm a little puzzled here. How does your PSA rise when you no longer have a prostate to produce the Prostate Specific Antigen required to even show in a test? That's something I'd want to get the doc to explain to me.

I have a buddy here that I give RSO to but he's not taking it seriously. Stage 4 and he had a bad reaction to the last chemo they tried so have nothing else to offer him so it's the oil or nothing. Just does what the doc says and doesn't do his own research or nothing. I try to impress on him that it's his life he's dealing with here but he doesn't seem to look at it the same as me I guess. He's about 5 years younger than me and we have the same urologist.

With some chemos you shouldn't be taking concentrated cannabis oils as they can either cause the drugs to stay in your system longer so doses will get too high or can cause it to be eliminated faster reducing the dosage in the blood. If your doc is willing to work with you you can get tested and he can adjust the doses to work with the pot. I does the same thing to an enzyme in your blood as grapefruit does so if you're warned to avoid grapefruit while taking a certain drug then the same warning applies to pot as they do the same thing.

:peace:
Click to expand...
Urology was not my specialty. I worked at the other end of things :)

The reason you still have PSA after a prostatectomy is because some small fraction of the organ can be left. It can also be signaling cancer in the prostate bed. If that progresses it's usually treated with radiation.

One reason to consider a bx is for tissue typing in case you have a tumor. That way you know if you have a slow or fast moving type which would drive treatment decisions. Although you're right, time will tell. Unfortunately by the time your body tells you you may have lost valuable treatment options.

I'm glad to hear you're getting good results from your adjunctive therapy and are active in your medical treatment and that your physician is working with you. Happy Holidays ;D
 
O

Oldguyrealy

Well-Known Member
This is how they figured I had Cancer. PSA was up.

They removed my Prostate. PSA still going up. They gave me Radiation Treatments.

Had a fill in Doctor give me the wrong medication and I was passing Blood they locked me in a Decompression Tube for two hours every day until I started freaking out. But my Urine was clean.

My PSA is still going up. My Daughter give me the name of a good Doctor. So I'm going to see a couple.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Oldguyrealy said:
This is how they figured I had Cancer. PSA was up.

They removed my Prostate. PSA still going up. They gave me Radiation Treatments.

Had a fill in Doctor give me the wrong medication and I was passing Blood they locked me in a Decompression Tube for two hours every day until I started freaking out. But my Urine was clean.

My PSA is still going up. My Daughter give me the name of a good Doctor. So I'm going to see a couple.
Click to expand...
Seems it can rise after the surgery if the cancer has spread or some prostate tissue remains as stated in this article.

My mom's partner died of prostate cancer and he went thru a lot of treatments in the 5 or 6 years before he died. Radioactive seeds in the gland, radiation treatments and a bunch of stuff I'm not aware of. Very nasty end so I'm glad we have MAID here. Medical Assistance In Dying so if shit goes sideways I don't have to suffer needlessly at the end if I don't want to.

I'm more concerned about dementia as I found out 5 years or so ago that my birth mother died of it. Diagnosed at age 65 and dead at 75 only 6 months before I made contact with my half-siblings. Not sure if they've fixed MAID yet so you can designate someone to pull your plug at an appointed time or when your condition is so bad you have forgotten even your own kids. As it was you had to be approved by two docs then when it came time to do it you still had to be of sound mind to sign off at the end. That's not possible with dementia patients so they were supposed to come up with something.

It's still very controversial but why should us humans have to suffer until the bitter end when you can take your ailing pet to the vet and have them humanly terminated. Religion is the main hurdle like it is in so many things when dealing with the human condition and should be outlawed from interfering with anything political.

Sounds like you've already had a tough time of it and I hope things work out well with a minimum of further problems.

:peace:
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
curious2garden said:
One reason to consider a bx is for tissue typing in case you have a tumor. That way you know if you have a slow or fast moving type which would drive treatment decisions. Although you're right, time will tell. Unfortunately by the time your body tells you you may have lost valuable treatment options.

I'm glad to hear you're getting good results from your adjunctive therapy and are active in your medical treatment and that your physician is working with you. Happy Holidays ;D
Click to expand...
The 3 previous MRIs didn't show anything wrong other than a flat area about 1cm in diameter. The prostate is covered with fine wrinkles on it's surface and there's just that one spot that is smooth. Does not protrude from the surface and is not indented at all just flat. The MRI at the closer hospital is an older model and he couldn't tell if there was anything going on under the surface which made him want me to go get it done on the gold standard MRI at the university hospital in Edmonton. Now that's done so we shall soon see.

One good thing is that the flat spot is right close to the rectal wall so he says he will only need to take 1 - 3 samples targeted to that spot to get results instead of using the usual shotgun approach with lots of samples taken all over that side of the prostate. Biopsies of the prostate come with a litinay of serious side effects including death so are not to be taken lightly. I've already had a cystoscopy done, (camera up the urethra into the bladder), and that was no fun except I got to watch on the monitor and 4 young nurses/medical trainees were present so at least I got to flash some ladies with no one calling the cops. :D

:peace: and a Merry Xmas to you and yours!
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
Just a tip.. my PSA has always been normal. Last year it went up by 4x's in 12 months.. the Doc wanted a re-test 3 months later. This was a long 3 months worrying about it. After doing some research online, you should not ejaculate 24 hours to testing (which I had).. 3 months later and back to 1.4. I told the Doc.."you didn't tell me not to ejaculate before testing"....He said "I didn't?"... would have been helpful.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
DoubleAtotheRON said:
Just a tip.. my PSA has always been normal. Last year it went up by 4x's in 12 months.. the Doc wanted a re-test 3 months later. This was a long 3 months worrying about it. After doing some research online, you should not ejaculate 24 hours to testing (which I had).. 3 months later and back to 1.4. I told the Doc.."you didn't tell me not to ejaculate before testing"....He said "I didn't?"... would have been helpful.
Click to expand...
You should avoid anything that irritates the prostate for 72 hours before being tested. So don't ya be riding them bulls the day before either there cowboy. ;)

Something like a bladder infection will send the PSA way up too so if it's suddenly higher that should always be checked for before any other procedures.

Every man will have some level of prostate enlargement as they age. It grows all through your life like noses and ears and as it grows it will cause the PSA to rise and how much it rises in relation to the size varies a lot too.

My bladder walls have thickened up so it doesn't stretch much and can't hold as much either. That means more trips to the bathroom but it's been a couple of months since I've had to get up at night to go when I used to have to get up 4 or 5 times a night then couldn't sleep because the signal to go wouldn't turn off even tho I knew there was nothing there. So much better now that I usually get up then go grab a coffee, fire up the computer, roll and smoke a cigarette and by then the morning wood has relaxed and I can actually go pee. :)

Could be a lot worse.

:peace:
 
StonedGardener

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I'm dealing with prostate issues myself at 68 and have for about 5 years now. I just drove 6 hours down to Edmonton for a hi-rez MRI on Monday in a f'n snow storm for it too. My urologist has been bugging me to go down there and after my latest PSA test jumping up about 2.5 points to 16.9 I figured I better get this much better scan done. At my first scan about 4 years ago my prostate was 60cc in size and getting me up a few times a night to pee but never shutting off the urge to go. I started using zinc and a few other things to deal with that and it's way better now.

At my 2nd scan about 18 months after the first peeing was more difficult and the prostate had now grown to 75cc so another scan was planned for a year later but took 18 months to get. This time I started taking a small dose of RSO every evening about 4 months before the scan and not only did my PSA drop 2 points down to 12.2 but my prostate shrunk down to 55cc so was smaller than at the first scan.

My urologist was gobsmacked and wanted to know what I was doing so I told him. He already knew I was using supplements to deal with urinary issues so wasn't surprised. We then decided at my suggestion that a scan every 2 years would be good enough with a PSA test every 6 months. Was about the same at the next test but after a year it had moved back up to 14.4 and he started pushing for me to make the trip down and get a biopsy. I agreed to the trip but a huge no to the biopsy unless something looks bad in this new scan.

When this all started I got a couple books from the library to research all the options and learn about this bothersome organ and how to deal with it. At my age I'm about 75% likely to have prostate cancer. That's a pretty scary statistic until you realize that about 95% of prostate cancers will grow so slowly that you'll die of something else before it ever even makes you ill. Down in the states they are building billion dollar clinics who's only function is to rip out prostates. Big money in that and a huge amount of men are falling for scare tactics to get this often unneeded and horribly invasive surgery when watching and waiting could leave them whole for the rest of their lives. After 5 years if my problem was an aggressive cancer I'd be dead or without a prostate by now so I'm sticking with the plan to monitor it.

The books I read were, 'The Whole Life Prostate Book' by Dr. H. Ballentine Carter who is the preeminent expert in the diagnosis and management of prostate disease at John Hopkins. It's about 650 pages but readable by us poor laypeople and doesn't bog you down in medical jargon. First I read a lot of stuff about my enlarged prostate and fixing that seem nastier than the problems I was dealing with. Then I read it cover to cover rereading the first parts I read.

The 2nd one was, The Great Prostate Hoax: How Big Medicine Hijacked the PSA Test and Caused a Public Health Disaster by Richard J. Ablin, Ronald Piana. Dr. Ablin is the man who came up with the PSA test back in 1970 and is appalled how it is being used to scaring men and their loved ones into getting life altering treatments and surgeries that a great many didn't need. Think corporate greed here.

I have all my junk functioning like it did when I was 40 and it worked great then so for now I'm a happy camper. I do take a fistfull of pills etc every day and will likely add more down the road but I'd rather do that than take pharma meds with all their horrible side effects so on none for anything now. I've added a larger dose of CBD oil to the RSO and that should help even more. Sure has helped tons with my joint pain and those horrible mornings are gone. Still achy but nothing like what it used to be.

I have very high T for a man my age. About the same as an 18yo guy my doc tells me and that can cause the PSA to rise as well. It rises as you age even if everything is fine.

I'll find out the results by Friday I think or it could be next week. The urologist will call to discuss the results when he has time. Busy man as he's the only urologist up here in northern Alberta and I have a 2 hour drive to go see him as it is so we do as much by phone as we can.

If anybody has any questions about various supplements to help with urinary issues just ask tho if you've had the operation I don't know that they would help. Do your kegel exercises!

:peace:
Click to expand...
I've seen so many guys wait to long before prostate removal . The cancer has spread and know they are in quite the predicament. I had a biopsy done ( no big deal)at the very start after PSA numbers remained elevated. They found cancer. I didn't hesitate for a second about removing it. The important thing is the surgeon.
I was lucky, hooked up with a real skilled surgeon specializing in prostatectomy (one of the best in the country), has performed over 10,000 procedures. Ya don't want some hack for this job. I would highly recommend a biopsy , what do you have to lose .......find out what's going on.......could save your life. I do respect your decisions, it's just that I've seen so many guys end up in the shit pile.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
StonedGardener said:
I've seen so many guys wait to long before prostate removal . The cancer has spread and know they are in quite the predicament. I had a biopsy done ( no big deal)at the very start after PSA numbers remained elevated. They found cancer. I didn't hesitate for a second about removing it. The important thing is the surgeon.
I was lucky, hooked up with a real skilled surgeon specializing in prostatectomy (one of the best in the country), has performed over 10,000 procedures. Ya don't want some hack for this job. I would highly recommend a biopsy , what do you have to lose .......find out what's going on.......could save your life. I do respect your decisions, it's just that I've seen so many guys end up in the shit pile.
Click to expand...
The biopsy can wait. At my age I'd for sure show some abnormal cells which would lead to more treatment I don't believe I need and it's my health at risk here so I get to call the shots. When I hear from the urologist I want to go back to the plan we made and he broke. PSA every 6 months and a scan in two years. Significant cancer would have my PSA at 50+ and it's only 16.9 now.

Whoo Hoo! Went with the wife to her doctor's appt today and she printed out the results of that prostate MRI for me. Clean bill of health!

"No measurable abnormality on MR imaging. Moderate BPH at 64cc." So it grew since the last MRI which had it at 55cc. My first scan had it at 60cc and it was 75cc at the 2nd scan. Urologist said the 55cc one could be an error in measurement.

"Overall PI-RADS category 2 which is low - (clinically significant cancer is highly unlikely to be present)"

"Peripheral Zone: Mildly heterogeneous T2 signal throughout the peripheral zone consistant with chronic inflammation or fibrosis." Doc today said that the inflammation could be the cause of the higher PSA results. I had a blown appendix 3 years ago and that inflammation could be a hangover from that. I had a drain tube in my belly for a week while on constant IV antibiotics to get rid of peritonitis from the leaky appendix. That had been going on for at least 5 years prior to the crisis that ended with me having an emergency appendectomy.

Did make note that there is "Severe sigmoid colon diverticulosis. 6cm cyst lower pole rt. kidney"

That colon thing is probably why I'm having the shits so often and surgery has already been indicated as fixing that. Doc says cyst is no big deal.

I almost wish I was still a drinking man 'cause I'd be tying one on tonight! Bought an extra lotto ticket instead. :D

3 out of 3 good outcomes is a trifecta for me. Mom is happy knowing she won't have to bury another child right away. My oldest little sister, (like me was adopted), died of ovarian cancer in March 2020. :(

happydance.gif

:peace:
 
O

Oldguyrealy

Well-Known Member
Well just found out a guy we knew died of other things than Prostate Cancer which I thought he had.

Too late for me done had mine removed. We shall see.
 
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