Diagnosis
A year ago this time I was in Wal-Mart with my wife. We passed by one of the blood pressure machines and decided to check our bp's. Mine was around 130/90. I decided to see my family doctor regarding this. He determined I was pre-hypertensive and gave me a 'script for meds. I also scheduled a physical because I hadn't had one in who knows how long. I figured he would jump me for triglycerides and cholestrol but he said my PSA was elevated. I didn't even know what that was. I saw a local urologist that put me on a round of antibiotics. My PSA fell from 6.8 to 4.9. He suggested a biopsy but I wanted to wait another 45 days to see what would happen. I was in complete denial. No symptoms, nothing. After about 90 days and me not doing anything I sought a second opinion. This doctor also encouraged me to have biopsy. My PSA had risen back to 5.8. The biopsy was done in May of 2010. Results, positive for T1c cancer. 7 of 12 cores positive with 2 cores over 30%. Gleason score 3+3. Age 53 yrs old, no family history. I had been doing on-line research about Prostate cancer and treatments. I was thinking HIFU in Canada. There were some clinical trials being done at Duke University Med Center. I am from North Carolina and scheduled a consult with the lead investigator to see if I could be worked into the clinical trial for free instead of forking over the $25k it costs out of country. We spoke in detail about HIFU, brachytherapy, cryotherapy, radiation, laproscopic and open prostatectomies. I was scared to death.