Dziadz's Journey with Prostate Cancer

I was 59 when I discovered I had prostate cancer. My PSA levels were pretty low (4.6) but had been rising. My urologist recommended a PSA test, and it detected a significant amount of cancer. I was in the hospital celebrating the birth of our fifth grandchild (July, 2011), when my doctor called me on my cell with my diagnosis. That was a mood deflator!

I had my surgery on Nov 21st, 2011. My surgery was delayed until later that day - I was back from surgery at 10 PM, up walking at 3 AM the next day, and out of the hospital that afternoon. We went to our daughter's house for Thanksgiving. I felt pretty good - I thought the whole experience was a "piece of cake". Then the swelling started - I ended up having a catheter for thee weeks! The reason for my swelling was that during surgery, the doctor found that my cancer had spread slightly to my ureter. He had to snip a little of that off, and he harvested a ring of lymph nodes. These leaked and caused the swelling. My surgeon told me I would need to have radiation after I had recovered from surgery. I did the Kiegel exercises faithfully and did not have any leakage problems for long (though I had "urge incontinence)". I was back at work after 6 weeks, My doctor felt that I was doing well so he scheduled me for radiation in February.

I started radiation in February of 2012, and ended in March. It was painless and I did not have any fatigue until the very end. Although it did not cause any extra side effects, I think that the radiation set the clock back to zero as far as the side effects. I continued to have urge incontience, and erectile dysfunction.

I started seeing a rehabilitation urologist in June, 2012. He says that at 6 months from the end of radiation (September, 2012) , I am 50% recovered. I continue to have urge incontinence, but it seems to be gradually subsiding. I continue to do the Kiegel exercises. I have absolutely no erectile function, but my doctor says that may take 1 to 2 years. He is treating me with a vaccum pump - not for sexual relations right now, but to stretch out the XXX every day. I have had a general tightness in my XXX ever since the surgery & radiation, and visually, the foreskin was covering the tip (which it never did before). The vaccum therapy is gradually reducing the feeling of tightness, and the XXX is slowly beginning to look like it did before treatment. I think its just going to take a while to fully recover, and the vaccum therapy seems to be speeding up the process.

After radiation treatment, I had a negligible PSA treatment. There is no talk of further treatment, as long as the PSA numbers don't move. Time will tell.