56 year old husband diagnosed with prostate cancer

Hi Gup, thanks for your message. Glad to hear you are recovering well after surgery. 
We were not told how big the tumour was but will add this to questions we have for the surgeon in next weeks telephone appointment. I think my husband has accepted that radical prostatectomy is probably the best way to go. 
Wishing you all the best with your continued recovery x

My thinking was that surgery is one chance of a complete recovery whereby radiotherapy means it will always be there and best case is in remission. I also believe that RT cannot be targeted in the same way as surgery and there must be damage to parts of the body that did not need it. 

Recovery from surgery is a short term thing in terms of my life and I keep positive as things improve every day

Hi there - I had a PSA of 11 ng/mL at 56 years and my dad died of prostate cancer at 67 (30 years ago now). MRI and template biopsy indicated T2c N0 M0 Gleason 4+3.  I was offered radiotherapy or RARP with curative intent and it was actually the radio guy who advised that I kept him in reserve and to go for surgery. Radiotherapy after surgery is a thing, but surgery after radiotherapy tends to lead to dire adverse effects.  Surgery at 57 with continence back to 99% after about 6 weeks (a bit of urgency if I've had coffee or booze).  ED after partial nerve sparing surgery - in effect total after 7 months.  100 mg sildenafil or 20 mg tadalafil doesn't do a thing.  Best I can manage is a bit of tumescence after a lot of effort.  The dry orgasm is a thing of wonder though.  I can't say I was firing on all cylinders before surgery to be fair.  Post op I was "upgraded" to T3a and downgraded to 3+4. Negative margins, back to the desk job after 10 weeks.  PSA <0.01 ng/mL since the op (7 months).

Good positive post. I had to Google "tumescence" - I thought it had to do with LED lights and their brightness. 17 months in my tumescence has yet to wake up and the ED drugs do nothing - BUT there is something going on down under.

I know what you mean about "something going on", although I'm functionally useless in that department thanks to the op, there is just a feeling that something may return one day.  I use the dreaded pump from time to time (takes some getting used to).  Consultant threatening me with Caverject injection but I struggled with the post op heparin injections so there's no way I'm sticking a needle into the gentleman's area.

Nonetheless I'm happy with my choice of procedure and glad that it looks successful so far.  I get the jitters before each PSA test (got one next week) but I'm hopeful for a long (maybe permanent?) remission.  Early retirement beckons.

Hi there, it’s now 4 weeks post op and 2 weeks since catheter removed ( which was painless, just a strange sensation). Finished the Heparin injections yesterday too, they weren’t too bad, the odd one smarted a bit lol. On the continance side, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I wear 1 x Tena pad during the day and 1 at night, which I could easily live with as it’s literally only a few tiny dribbles day and night. I do find up till lunchtime I don’t dribble at all. It’s still early days so I’m sure it can and will get even better. As for ED, I can get almost a normal erection only by hand , up to now, and the dry orgasm is is rather strange ( it makes me think did i, or didn’t I orgasm lol, I’m sure this will get better with time. Overall it really hasn’t been a bad experience and I’m so glad to have got it done. So tell your husband it really ain’t that bad at all .Will keep you informed of any further developments , take care.

Dave

Hi, thanks for your honest input. Glad to hear some positive points. Good luck with your continued recovery. 

Live Happy,

On 27th May last year I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer (Gleason score of 3&4,T2).

I was 57 at the time.  I opted for Hormones &  VMAT Radiation.  Finished my 20 Radiation sessions on 2nd November.

Last Tuesday I was told that I was in Biochemical Remission.  Active surveillance every 6 months, as long as my PSA can stay between 0 and 2.

I don't regret my choice.

Best of luck.

Hi Dave, so good to hear from you again and thank you for being so honest with your stages of recovery, all sounds very promising which is encouraging. We’ve had the phone call with the surgeon last Tuesday, all seems quite positive although he says there is a strong chance that he can only spare nerve one side as cancer has possibly broken through the side of the capsule on the other, however he couldn’t confirm that until he was actually in there operating. We’re still proceeding with robotic surgery and expect it to be in the next 3 weeks or so. 
Fingers crossed all will go according to plan. Take care and please keep us informed of your progress. 
Many thanks x

Hi Steve, thanks for your message and sharing your thoughts and experience. Great news on your results x