Surviving Cancer

   It wasn't until I woke up in the recovery room that the gravity of the situation really began to sink it.  When I was first told I had cancer it didn't come as a surprise or shock to me.  I had known for years that there was something wrong but doctors always said my problems were due to an enlarged prostate but never made any recommendations for treatment.
   A PSA test is an indicator that cancer is present in the prostate but because of the nature of prostate cancer PSA tests are seldom given to those of us over the age of 70 unless we have been diagnosed with cancer then it becomes part of our regular treatment.  The idea is that after 70 you are more likely to die of something other than the cancer and the cure is often worse than the disease.
  My situation isn't any different except that I did have a doctor give me a PSA test who, based on the results, sent me for a biopsy.  Asa result of the biopsy I was scheduled for an MRI which informed me of the gravity of the situation.
    I consider myself to be in good shape, especially for a 71 year old, but I had an extraordinary large prostate.  The average prostate of a healthy male is 7 to 16 grams with the average size at 11.  An enlarged prostate is normally measured at around 40 grams.  Mine was measured at 100 grams.  Not only was it large but it was cancerous, considered to be in the intermediate stage.  That meant I had options.
  Option number one is radiation seeding.  In this procedure around 80 isotopes are implanted into a prostate and as they dissolve the cancer is killed off.  It is a one time procedure.
   Option number two is radiation treatments.  One makes 40 trips to the doctor for a shot of radiation.  Each treatment takes about 15 minutes, 10 of which is changing clothes.
   Option number three is surgery.
   In most cases, doctors like to take and wait and see approach or wait and observe, in which a patient come in every three months for a PSA test to see if there has been any change.   Sometimes the PSA scores will drop.  Often nothing ever needs to be done.  The patient is most often better off skipping the options as often the cure is worse than the disease.  What the biggest danger is if the cancer spreads outside of the prostate then things can get rapidly worse for the patient.
   When a person has an enlarged prostate,  the radiation seeding option can be taken off the table because the area to be treated is just too large.  In that case, hormone shots are given for one to two years to shrink the prostate.
  In my case, it would have taken a two year program of hormone treatments ( I could grow man boobs)  before my prostate would shrink enough to treat.  Considering my state (intermediate) and the fact that my MRI showed that the cancer was at the walls of the prostate, I thought that if I waited two years for my prostate to shrink the cancer might not be contained to just the prostate.
    I decided the best option for me was surgery.