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Started PSA screening as a routine and became a nightmnare

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User
Posted 11 Apr 2018 at 13:42

Hello everybody

My name is Panos and I am 48 years old. A few years ago ( when i was 44) i decided to start screening for prostate cancer. The reason for this decision is because o f a close friend of mine that was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I thought i should start early the screening procedure since my father at age 63 has removed his gland bevause of severe BPH (he couldnt sleep at nights because of several time urinating). Today he is 91 years old and he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (Gleas score 4+5 with a PSA of 70mg just before diagnosis).

My first PSA test came out 3.41mg. I was alarmed because i was 44 years old and it seemed a rather high score. From this time and on , i am living a nightmnare. I am a very stressful kind of person and i cannot hundle in a easy way anything it has to do with sickness. I have started to visit an urologist and we have decided to measure PSA every six months and so.

My PSA readings are the following:

14/6/2014  - 3.42
12/08/2014 - 3.55
8/09/2014 - 2.77 (after a 3week antibiotic treatment)
10/12/2014 - 3.25
06/05/2015 - 3.38
4/11/2015 - 3.73
11/04/2016 - 3.55
12/11/2016 - 4.2 and fPSA 22.1%
09/12/2016 - 4.81 (after a 3week antibiotic treatment that didnt do anything)
26/01/2017 - 4.01
26/05/207 - 4.1
06/03/2018 - 5.05, fPSA 25.5%
11/04/2088 - 5.27, fPSA 19,5% ( after a 4week antibiotic treatment that didnt do anything)

My DRE all these year were normal but my prostate sees to be inflamed

For the last years i have ongoing discomfort at my testicles, pain on lower back and legs, mostly my left testicle and leg feel a dull pain
I also suffer from IBS for almost 1 year.

Before my last PSA test ( which was today) my doctor gave me this 4weeks treatment with antibiotics because of my symptom of pain in testicles, lower back and leg.

Since my today PSA result is higher than the previous although the antibiotics, i am panicked and i dont know what is next.

Prostate biopsy seems to me a very scary procedure with no end results. I read stories about people that had 10 or 15 biopsies and had no clear answer...
Should i consider a ΜRI instead?

I would feel grateful for any feed back .

User
Posted 11 Apr 2018 at 16:08

I am not sure what the usual procedure would be in Greece but in the UK, some urologists would biopsy first and MRI afterwards while others would do an MRI first and then biopsy if it was thought necessary. However, your fPSA results suggest that your condition is benign and in the UK that would be taken to indicate that you do not need a biopsy.

Some of your symptoms are not associated with prostate cancer at all and others could be but are just as likely to be down to anxiety. Pain in the testicles is not commonly associated with the prostate as they are quite some distance from each other and lower back / leg pain is only associated with very late PCA that has spread to bones or damaged the kidneys (neither of which seem to apply in your case because of your fPSA level)

Does the urologist say whether you have a particularly large prostate like your dad? Hopefully, you can find some reassurance that your condition is unlikely to be cancer but that it is very important to continue to monitor in the future.

Edited by member 17 Apr 2018 at 07:34  | Reason: Not specified

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 17 Apr 2018 at 05:55
Thank you very much for your reply.

I will take your advice very seriously into consideratiom

I will proceed with the scan and we will see.

User
Posted 17 Apr 2018 at 08:37

You are doing exactly the right thing by continuing to monitor things. Your PSA is very low and rising VERY slowly, less than 2 increase in 4 years. Of course you worry, because that is in your nature. Have the scan, and see what it tells you, maybe have a biopsy, and see what that tells you.
Even if the outcome is that there are cancerous cells in there, at this stage the advice you get might well be to continue to monitor it, maybe for several years more.
You are well ahead in the game, many, many, many people would change places with you, please try not to keep guessing about what will happen, keep enjoying your life.
But please send us some sunshine, we are getting desperate in Britain😉

User
Posted 17 Apr 2018 at 18:10

Hi Panos,

I have just experienced a few days of lower back pain and aching testicles, turns out I was passing a kidney stone, a mighty relief to know it was nothing to do with PCa whatsoever!

:)

Dave

 

User
Posted 18 Apr 2018 at 09:17

Yes you are right about worrying to be my nature...Some things cannot be change.
Thank you very much for your response and your advise.... I will procced with the scan and i will see what next.
I sent you some sun from sunny Athens although these last days we have a lot of dust from the south winds from Africa.

https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/editors/tiny_mce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif

User
Posted 18 Apr 2018 at 09:19

Thank you David for your response

User
Posted 18 Apr 2018 at 17:47
The sunshine has arrived, thankyou and good luck
 
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