newbie-- prostate removed-- couple questions please.......

dmehrl · New User Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 3

Hello, i,m new to this form. I,m 46, had a psa of 5, biopsy prooved cancer. Had my prostate removed 3 weeks ago. Doc also took 1 nerve out. Lymph nodes and all else came up negative. Sounds like i,m clean now. Do most people have now further issues " cancer popping back up" after you get a clean report ? I still have to go back every 3 months for a psa test. Also, got my cathetor removed 4 days ago. I have hardly no control of leakage during the day, but at night, i wake about every 2 1/2 hours, feeling like my bladder is kinda full, get up and pee a fairly decent stream. I understand it's very early yet, but kinda woundering if it sounds normal. My prostate was also stuck to my rectum accourding to mmy doc , and he had to kinda peel them apart. My butt is alittle sore, not being able to sit on hard surface very well. Ever here of that before ? How long should i expect before a gain some control during the day ? My surgery type was open....... Thanks in advance !

Marathon Man

Hi dmehrl, Welcome to the club! Sounds like you're doing ok. I had open surgery too, just over 13 months ago. I found the first few days were the worst. The fact that you're holding and waking is good and, maybe apprehension during the day is leading to more leakage - fear of leakage ending up with more leakage. Sounds normal.

wrt peeling your gland from the wall of the rectum, my doc said that he'd experienced PC leading to a perforated bowel once on approx. 20 years of prostate surgery. Sounds like you got lucky there.

As regards sitting, you can get various types of cushions, afraid I don't know what they're called, that may help. They're ring type inflatable cushions that take the pressure off the centre. One of these may help for the first week or two.

13 months on, I'm doing good. You're age and hopefully corresponding (otherwise) good health will stand to you. One hint that may help - don't know if you're doing kegels or not, my doc didn't believe in them for men - he recommended starting and stopping your stream instead. If you're already doing kegels, there's no yeason not to do the stop/start routine as well - it worked for me.
Good luck and just take each day at a time - make haste slowly.
MM
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Marathon Man

PSA May 06, then 6 monthly; 4.3-4.9-6.8, Dx Feb 2008, PSA 9.4 @age 54 - Biopsy Gleason 4+3
RRP 22 May 2008 - Gleason 4+4, Tumour Vol 5%, T2a, N0M0, Negative Margins. Aug 08, PSA <0.01, Feb 09 <0.02, Sep 09 <0.02, Mar 10 <0.02

http://prostaterunner.blogspot.com/ Irregularly updated & months behind!

dmehrl · New User Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks for your reply marathon man. I'm just woundering if you or anyone else on this form has experienced the pain or brusing in the butt feel, when they sit down on a firm surface....... Is the gland sticking to the rectum wall kind of normal ?

Marathon Man

I don't recall having pain, but I certainly had discomfort sitting down, but particularly on a soft surface, like a couch or setee. I used a relatively firm, but not hard, recliner chair for the most part.

On your second question, the gland should be fairly slick and just lift out easily. When the tumor is fairly close to the margins, apparently there is a sticky velcro type effect when taking it out. You won't hear of this with any of the keyhole surgeries as they don't have the "feel" of open surgery. While you don't say specifically, you have negative margins, so you're clean.

If your uro surgeon reckoned that you still had cancer after the gland was removed, he'd have removed as much as possible, including part of your colon. My guy said that, if the cancer had penetrated the colon wall, he'd remove a section of my colon, giving me a colostomy for a few months. Thankfully that didn't happen either of us.
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Marathon Man

PSA May 06, then 6 monthly; 4.3-4.9-6.8, Dx Feb 2008, PSA 9.4 @age 54 - Biopsy Gleason 4+3
RRP 22 May 2008 - Gleason 4+4, Tumour Vol 5%, T2a, N0M0, Negative Margins. Aug 08, PSA <0.01, Feb 09 <0.02, Sep 09 <0.02, Mar 10 <0.02

http://prostaterunner.blogspot.com/ Irregularly updated & months behind!

johnT · Senior User Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 235

The main indicators of reoccurrance is your initial Gleason score and if you have positive margins. If your Gleason was below 7 the chance of reoccurance is rare, G8 or above there is a high probability of reoccurrrance.
JohnT
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psa at diagnosis 40 in nov-08
gleason 6 and 7
Treatment choice seeds and IMRT

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