I’ve yet to ring the bell - I thought of as most do when treatment is done. I’ll be two years in Sept and maybe i will then. But they say it’s five years til you are cancer free.
I’ve been fortunate - I had radiation. My PSA is undetectable and my testosterone is normal - but yes and I’m not a scientist, but the testosterone is what fees the PSA levels. Hence the hormones to remove them.
I had two friends with surgery. One recently had a 3 PSA. I was there when he got the call which was - likely a lab error but have to test again. It wasn’t an error. They found a spot escaped - but he’s getting radiation starting next week and already has started on hormones. So things can happen - but even if they do - they have such great ways today.
It’s awesome his surgery was great - and hopefully it stays that way for years and years. But if there is an issue, they’ll resolve that too. The important thing is that he caught it and handled it.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we’re leaving tomorrow to travel to my husband’s brother’s funeral. He died of colon cancer that spread throughout his body.
There are eight siblings and none except for my husband made any attempt at any type of support until he went on hospice a few weeks ago. My husband stopped to see him and four other siblings when he went on a cross country trip a few months ago. My husband and four he visited have all had some type of cancer, thankfully so far only one was terminal. Another brother he did not see has had cancer also.
Very similar to my dad’s family where six of nine siblings had different types of cancer. My father and three others had terminal cancer. I think smoking was the common denominator with my family. With my husband and siblings, it was about 50% or less with a smoking history.
My BIL was a great guy. He married a Mexican immigrant who got a nursing degree and moved with her a few years ago to Colorado to live on her family’s compound. She got a job at the local hospital and he became an irrigation manager. Former jobs were trucker and handyman. He could do just about anything. We visited a couple of years ago and SIL was grilling Chili rellenos, and when they were done, like 20 people came out of the woodwork to eat!
All of the siblings will be attending the funeral I believe - it’s too bad that it took a death for them to all come together. I’m just so devastated about it - sorry for rambling. He was my girls’ favorite uncle.
I would be very tempted to have a genetic test (or two, one for you and one for your husband). There are a number of gene defects that can make cancer more likely.
One possible use of such a test: If you find a gene defect, children can get tested to see if they have the same defect. If they do, then some tests (such as the initial colonoscopy) might want to be done at an earlier age.
Yes we may consider that. My husband’s cancer is rampant skin cancer. He gets a few removed about every six months with at least one requiring mohs surgery. His legs look like he has multiple shrapnel wounds. His derm thinks he has some genetic defect.
I, and my siblings and cousins on my father’s side have been cancer free thankfully except for one who was adopted. That’s why I think it had an environmental or smoking related cause. My children are adopted also so genetic tests for us wouldn’t benefit them.
I’ve talked about it before, when our daughter was diagnosed at 32 with breast cancer all of us had genetic testing.
The gene mutation comes through my husband’s side which has lots of cancer diagnoses. My husband has a higher incidence of pancreatic cancer. He’s now being tested for that.
And if god willing my daughter is able to have children, all of her embryos have been tested and do not have the mutation. At least our family tree has seen the last of that kind of cancer.
Wow, it would be scary to have lots of cancer in the family, especially at young ages. My older brother died of non-hodgkins lymphoma at age 68, which none of us knew he had until the last year of his life or so. My dad had a “mass” detected in imaging around age 90. He never opted to figure out more, so it may have been cancer. Mom was diagnosed with anal cancer at 90. I feel that it 90, cancer is not unusual.
No cancer in any of the rest of us sibs, so far and the youngest of us is 60. H had prostate cancer at 83 & it was detected and treated—no metastases. His dad had it and it was treated but eventually it metastasized (treatments weren’t as great back in the day).
OP – DH’s surgery was this week, we are 48 hrs post op. Surgery went well and doctor is very pleased with the results. PAthology in a couple weeks will confirm there was no cancer “leaking” outside the capsule.
Got home okay. He had a panic attack over the catheter leaking and called the office; this resolved as a gravity problem which is good bc the office never called back. They were supposed to call today w a time for removing the catheter next Monday but I finally called them. THey had been calling his work phone?! So now it comes out Tuesday instead and he is depressed about that. Doesn’t really want to eat, but I did cajole him into the shower. Is vastly better and more capable than even 12 hrs ago. incisions are sore but he’s only taking extra strength tylenol and in no serious pain. Trying to be patient but also trying to get him up and moving around. Slept on the couch so I could hear him if he needed me but he didn’t. His parents did call but only offered all sorts of dire predictions that I find unhelpful, at least they called.
Great that surgery is done and he is back home. Hopefully his appetite returns soon. Some food that I’ve heard as good to tempt sick patients (maybe one will work): mashed potatoes, melon of all kinds, scrambled eggs or egg/cheese casserole, ice cream, dry toast, jello (or junket or custard is what my mom used to make for me)
The catheter was not the greatest experience (when in, and again on the way out). I was off opioids well before it came out. They told me it would be no big deal. Frankly if I were to do this again I would probably have taken one single opioid pill an hour or so before it came out. The pain only lasted something like a second or two, but it was not fun. The catheter did however allow me to sleep through the night.
Otherwise my recollection is that the recovery was quick and relatively painless. I also was feeling very happy and relieved to have the cancer (or at least most of it) gone.
But you might not really know for quite a while, perhaps years. That is okay. In the mean time you live your life. You and your spouse also should keep in mind that there are lots of treatments that are still available in case they are ever needed (ie, if the cancer returns).
By the way, when my cancer disappeared after three rounds of treatments and two recurrences, my oncologist was visibly quite surprised the first few times that he said “undetectable”. Apparently this used to never happen but now has become at least possible. My understanding is that much of this is because they are detecting recurrences earlier, and treating them more effectively.
I am glad to hear that you husband’s surgery is over and wish him, and you, a speedy recovery.
DH’s post surgery PSA, done at 8 weeks, was not zero as expected. Dr said let’s wait 4 more weeks and do it again, we got those results today. His PSA almost doubled, and now is 0.23…..appt this week but in the meantime DH is scaring himself silly over next steps. I think his dr will want to wait and watch; also, I think dr was overconfident when he elected to not take any lymph nodes bc he was so sure this was a very contained case. I just want to be mad at someone or something, lol.
My H had radiation, brachytherapy and testosterone suppression. His PSA dropped a great deal but was never down to 0. Its still low. He didn’t have lymph nodes removed either.
PSA response is different after radiation treatment as compared to prostatectomy.
PSA typical range after radiation is from .2 to .5 because the prostate is still present and producing small amounts of PSA, even though it was irradiated. Post-prostactemony PSA should be undetectable/nearly so (because there should be no more prostate cells anywhere.)
@greenbutton good luck at the doctor visit. Have all your questions ready. Wishing good news for you and your H.
I wish you well. It sucks but he will persevere. You are having it handled, which is most important. It’s not an exact science but the Drs, in the end, will get it right - and if needed, have another look at the results for a second option.
OK, I wish your H the best. I’m glad his docs are keeping and eye on things and being active monitoring. Fingers crossed they figure out a good plan going forward.
At least what they told me, but this was several years ago, is that they are unlikely to be able to find where the cancer is until the PSA gets up to around about 1. For me this took a few years. Then they did a PET scan, found one bit of cancer, and wiped it out with radiation. Then the PSA still did not go to zero so they waited until the PSA got back to 1, found some more cancer, and took it out with radiation. Then the PSA did go to “undetectable”. This was a scary time, with a somewhat surprising but very positive outcome.
There might however be other options that the oncologist can suggest. This is likely to depend upon a lot of issues which the oncologist is likely to understand very well but that goes way beyond anything I understand.
However, there are still multiple very good treatment options available.
seen the last of that kind of cancer.