I am another of the "fairly" silent few on the site, but my heart truly goes out
to those of us that have lost their wives to cancer. But remember for us guys
who are still fortunate enough to be together with our best friend that we also
have a duty to try and ensure that we do not become a lost best friend for them.

I discovered something recently that at least to me was pretty scary and would
like to pass it on to all the members hoping that it may help some of you. I had
prostate cancer 6 years ago, and my prostate was removed (I was 66 then). I was
lucky (as I never believed in going to the Doctor's for check ups) until my Doc
and wife ganged up on me to go. For those of you that may not know 4.5 is the
PSA reading that docs' apparently like to see you below, I was about 5 and
shortly after 9 and by the time I had biopsies 11.

For about 4 years after my prostate was removed my readings were at 0.02 which
is next to nothing then the reading jumped to 0.06 which is still very very
small. My doc and the surgeon who removed my prostate said, nothing to worry
about even when it went to 0.08. But my engineering background which includes
trend analysis did not like this and I complained until I got an appointment
with the Cancer Clinic. By the time I had the appointment with the Cancer Dr who
carried out another PSA test, the reading was 0.1, which I thought in the big
scheme of things (4.5 being the criteria) was still way off being a problem.

But here is the scary part, the cancer doc told me that the 4.5 reading is only
if you have never had cancer before. I am to have PSA checks every 3 months now
starting in about 3 weeks and if it rises to 0.2, I will have to spend 6 weeks
at the cancer clinic having daily radiation treatment as the doc said at that
point (0.2) I have the best chance of killing the cancer. They have to determine
first of all whether the cancer is at the base of where the prostate was removed
or has spread somewhere else. Hopefully the readings will stabilize and it will
not be necessary, we will find out.

But the point of this message is, that had I just accepted the opinions of my
doc and the surgeon and not pushed for a cancer specialist opinion (and let's
face it, what do I really know about medical problems and cancer) next year on
my annual PSA check up I may have been well past the point at which the cancer
doc said I should have treatment to have the best chance of beating it.

I hope this may assist some of you and my best to you all, particularly the guys
who regrettably have lost their "best friend"

Brian D.

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