More prostate cancer
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A couple of years ago I had a Biopsy when I had a PSA of 4. Last year, I had a PSA of 9. It went down in a second test - but still elevated. I'm due again. One of my brothers has had prostate cancer, and I anticipate that I will as well. Brother did the radiation route. Reminds me to schedule another PSA.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Thanks for the sobering news. I need to make sure I get these tests, since I'm unfortunately the type where "ignore it, and it will go away" covers everything.
Good to hear from you, Renauda. You always had a unique and informed perspective, I always enjoyed reading your thoughts on various issues, and learned from them.
Best of luck in all future tests and pokes. Makes me cringe, but you are of course right in being proactive and knowledgeable about what's going on with your health.
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A couple of points I would like to add. Comments I commonly heard from male colleagues, friends and acquaintances when i told them the details of my initial diagnosis, went along the lines of:
"I'm too busy to get the test"
"I am not ready to hear the news if it comes back with a high score."
"I don't have any trouble peeing so i don't see the need."
"My father didn't have it so I am not concerned."
"A cancer diagnosis would freak me out, i wouldn't be able to sleep or eat."
All i can say is that when I got the confirmed diagnosis last August It didn't phase me and i never thought twice about it after. Even when the more aggressive cells were confirmed in March, it didn't worry me. Why? Because the urologist felt confident from my first visit that all the right screening steps were taken within a reasonable timeframe to ensure a postive outcome once the time to act was evident. Not once did I ever think that all was bad news from the doctors. In fact i specifically remember saying to the urologist when he explained my Gleason 5 diagnosis, "well, that's good news" and we moved forward.
To me it has been nothing more than an inconvenience. And for the record, my father lived to 91 years. He never had prostate cancer and I remember from his medical records he did screen annually.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K Sadly, that was spewed from the mouth of an individual who in real life is perhaps the most unproductive workaholic narcissist and micro-managing nano bourgeois shopkeeper I have ever in encountered in a workplace in 45 years.
Everything about him was BS. Was glad when COVID 19 closed his doors in March.
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Sorry to hear you're going through this, but very glad they caught it, Renauda.
There's really no excuse not to have the screening. Admittedly, I put off the colonoscopy for a couple of years when I turned 50, but that was mostly due to me dreading the process. As it happens, it was a good job I got it done, for peace of mind and polyp removal if nothing else.
(In case you don't know - the poster formerly known as D'Oh)
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@Renauda said in More prostate cancer:
Sadly, that was spewed from the mouth of an individual who in real life is perhaps the most unproductive workaholic narcissist and micro-managing nano bourgeois shopkeeper I have ever in encountered in a workplace in 45 years.
It's a LEFT
BOOM! -- Then a RIGHT!!!! 
Hope Renauda is back for good, or for a good long while!
(you old softspoken softie, you...) -
@George-K said in More prostate cancer:
@Jolly said in More prostate cancer:
I am extremely glad the rumors of your death are quite unfounded.
Indeed.
+1
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Thanks for the PSA PSA.
I’ve never had one and get this - I already get monthly blood draws and my dad died of prostate cancer.
And the idea of getting a bad diagnosis isn’t scary anymore. I was long since dragged out of the fantasy that I was somehow bulletproof.
So yeah, not a lot of excuses. I’ll get it added to my regimen.
Geed to see you here and glad you’re doing well.
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While PSA tests may of course save lives in individual cases, that is not an argument that they should be performed in general because it ignores the cases where the PSA test may have made the situation worse.
This is how Wikipedia summarizes the state of the art.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 found that over a 7 to 10-year period, "screening did not reduce the death rate in men 55 and over."[50] Former screening proponents, including some from Stanford University, have come out against routine testing. In February 2010, the American Cancer Society urged "more caution in using the test." And the American College of Preventive Medicine concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to recommend routine screening."
PSA tests result in huge amounts of money being shifted. Whenever that much money is involved, one has to be very careful about whom to trust.
