Prostate Surgery

  In todays way of thinking prostate surgery is considered the last option.  There can be so many complications and cancer of the prostate is considered a slow growing cancer.  A man can live for  a decade or more with no treatment.  Often, seeding and/or radiation can take care of the problem. Even so, prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among men.
  Doctors us a test for PSA which is an indicator that things aren't as they should be.  An exam can also help determine the size of the prostate.  As men get older their prostate gets larger.  The prostate is a small organ, about the size of a walnut and in normal healthy males weighs around 11 grams but can vary from 7 to 16 grams.
   I knew my prostate was large and was causing me problems.  I had never has a PSA test before and once a man reaches my age they are rarely given but my doctor decided to give me one anyway.  It came back high (6.4) so I was sent to have a biopsy.  The biopsy showed that I had an unusually large prostate, weighing 97 to 100 grams and certain parts of it was hard and proved to be cancerous.  The doctors discussed treatment options with me.  First option was surgery to remove the prostate.  The second was radiation and the third was radiation seeding.
  Due to the size of my prostate the radiation seeding was off the table.  That procedure entails the surgeon depositing around 80 radiation seeds in the prostate and the long lasting isotopes will destroy the cancer.  The second option was radiation and that required hormone treatments to shrink the size of my prostate and then 40 visits to the radiologist for 40 quick radiation treatments.  In my case, the hormone shots would take a year to two years to be effective.  My testosterone would fall to zero and I would likely experience other changes to my appearance.  There was also the danger that while attempting to shrink my prostate the cancer could spread outside of the prostate.  If it did then surgery would not be an effective treatment.
   After much prayer and weighing all my options I chose surgery which was performed on my sons birthday, July 23rd.  Recovery is painful and inconvenient but progressing well.