Husband has surgery on January 11.

[Guest guest]

Sue,You may find this site useful. Plenty of groups to chose from, active participants and archives.http://www.prostatepointers.org/mlist/mlist.html

I'd recommend P2P - and for you to quickly get on it to talk to Dr. Strum for a second independent opinion. [ Feel free to copy what follows.]Gleason 3,3 in just 3 of 6 cores ?? I do not know if a T1C and PSA 4.6 really justifies surgery. I would provisionally regard this as "insignificant disease", until I knew more about Mike's PSA velocity (PSAV), PSA density (PSAD) and percent free PSA (fPSA). It does not sound like he has any voiding symptoms that might give cause for concern. With your husband's risk of heart complications, I can't even imagine how surgery is contemplated, let alone planned so soon. Is he panicking - being pushed because he has been diagnosed with a BIG'C' so soon after his cardio problems ? Don't let that happen.

At the age of 48 I had a PSA > 20 T0N0M0 in 1995 and then a PSA > 50 T3N1M0 (biopsy G4) less than a year later, with severe urinary symptoms. My NHS was sleeping on the job - just the opposite to what is happening to your husband, in my opinion. Clearly something nasty had kicked off and surgery was warranted in my case. However, for many men surgey is not warranted and this is especially so in a for-profit medical system.

Check this link out. It was written about 10 years ago by a very knowledgeable PCa patient with G5,4 disease, now passed away.

http://www.phoenix5.org/Infolink/ClinicalStaging.html

I think your husband can afford to wait and see what his PSA is doing. Many men have had a higher PSA and recovered completely without any medical intervention whatsoever. Perhaps Mike needs to rethink some aspects of his lifestyle. Is he really eating and exercising right ?* Has he been getting enough sunshine? Has he been exposed to xenoestrogens at work ?* I know of one man who had a G5,4 who had been given a couple of years. He worked in a boatyard where they painted ship's hulls with a chemical that prevented barnacles growing (hormone disruptor). After he left that job his cancer disappeared. I spoke to him a few years later and he was still OK.

Take care,

Sam.

*At least 30 minutes cardiovascular per day (every day) - jogging, rowing, swiming that takes you out of your comfort zone and puts you in a sweat. Weight training twice a week. Improvements in fitness and strength alone have been shown to protect against all cancer mortality.

* What is Mike's serum vitamin D level ? [ Vitamin D is a powerful anti-cancer vitamin. Minimum is 50ng/ml (NOT nmol/L)] What is his serum testosterone, SHBG and estrogen level ? [ If these are out of kilter they can affect PSA long before serious biological changes takes place.]

Husband has surgery on January 11. Hello, My husband is having laparoscopic prostate cancer surgery on January 11 and I am so terrified. I've been on the wonderful women's forum and they are awesome. Very supportive. But I was wondering if any men who've been through it have advice for me? Anything the women in your life did that helped? Anything they did that hindered? Any advice for the loved ones who watch you go through this? Mike is 63 and was diagnosed in October. His PSA is 4.3, gleason 6 and his stage is T1C. Three out of 6 cores in his biopsy showed cancer - 5%, 15% and 20%. Mike elected for surgery and will have it laparoscopically. Part of my great fear is that Mike had a quadruple bypass heart surgery 5 years ago. He never had a heart attack but for some reason, out of the blue, his heart enlarged. It's been a rough road back to health - full of heart arrhythmias - but Mike worked hard through exercise and diet to make things better. His cardiologist said his heart was in great shape and if he could have picked a time to have surgery, this was the time. I'm just so terrified. Terrified his heart will give out during the surgery, terrified of losing him, terrified that the cancer isn't confined in the prostate and just feel so darn bad that Mike has to go through all this when he's been through so much as it is. It also didn't help that a 70 year old high profile judge from this area died suddenly from prostate cancer surgery. It was all over the news. I'm trying hard to be cheery, upbeat, positive and supportive, but I'm really scared. Any advice or thoughts?Thanks for listening, Sue