Patients share how researching treatment options, seeking multiple expert opinions, and considering both the benefits and side effects of each approach helped them make informed decisions about their prostate cancer care. They encourage patients to advocate for themselves, ask questions, pursue early detection through PSA screening, and choose a treatment plan that aligns with their personal priorities and long-term goals.
Glenn Ritchie:
When I was given my options, my urologist, Dr. Clausen, is a surgeon by trade, but he spoke about the radiation piece as well. And I wasn't as concerned about the treatment as I was the effects or the future. So had a great conversation about what I heard was surgery allows radiation later should it be needed. Radiation makes it more difficult for surgery after the fact, and that was a key point for me.
But I also spoke with some men in my life that had had prostate cancer before, and some of them did radiation, and some of them did the surgery. So I talked to them about results. And even in that instance, I didn't ask enough questions. I never talked about sexual function with any of those men that would be difficult, but I talked to them about urinary issues and post-treatment, if you will. And ultimately, we decided, we being my wife and I, that surgery was the way to go.
And I'm also a "cut it out and be done with it" kind of a guy. I mean, I didn't want to go through six months of radiation again. I didn't want to ... Just the word mushy bothers me, so I didn't want to envision the prostate becoming mushy. This is probably too much information. So we decided on surgery.
Phillip Lavender:
Started doing research with my prognosis and saying that with ... Like I said, I had type 1 prostate cancer. So the big question is that what shall I do? Should I have the radiation or should I have it removed? And we started talking about the removal aspect of it. So we went through the robotics. Sounded pretty scary at the time, but as I looked at it, I started to look at all the pros and cons of each one of them. The radiation had its problems, and the robotics also had its problems. So Phil, what do you want to do?
I'm a spreadsheet guy in a way. I read all the things that I could about it, talked to the doctors, and I put on a spreadsheet some of the diagnosis and the cures and the methodologies that they did with the radiation, the waiting and with the laparoscopic treatments. And I had a column for that that I had about what was the symptoms, what was the downfalls and stuff like that. So I weighed each one of those, and we came up with the computer-type deal that I wanted to do.
So we thought about it and we prayed about it, and we looked at the robotics. So in July of that year, I went through that procedure. I was in the hospital for maybe a day, and it went pretty good. I was surprised that I hadn't really had that much of a pain, didn't have that much of a bleeding aspect of it. So I was pretty comfortable with that.
The things that affected me as it do over both prostate cancer people is that you have the incontinence of your urine incontinence, you have some sexual ED problems that we went through.
John Wu:
And part of my journey is to meet up with a fellow man, talk about some issues and hopefully preventing any other cases that if men could avoid it by having an early prevention, just a simple blood test, a PSA can indicate it in addition to the clinical symptoms, but don't wait too long. The chance of a cure is a lot higher, over 90%, if you discover it early.
And from the beginning, I went online because of not knowing too much about it and I'm very inquisitive about the thing that affected me personally. I went online, did all sorts of research, what takes place and what causes the prostate cancer and also what treatments are involved and the options. And I think a part of that is for people who are not experts in this and they want to know, there are options you can learn by talking to friends and people you know who had a cancer, prostate cancer in this case, or go online and also talk to doctors and all these specialists. They can map out certain options and then you decide what to do. So I felt a lot better walking to doctor's office. Now, at least mentally, I was prepared what lies ahead of me, and when doctor says, "Now, you have two options and you take the pick, but I think this is better than the other." So I just went for it.
Randy Shaver:
Well, I was originally scheduled to have surgery, but the cancer was a little bit outside the capsule. And so when we discussed surgery, we started talking about margins and start talking about nerves, and now, you start talking about possibly having issues with your nightlife. And so that's when I decided to get some more information. Through the process, I found out about radiation and Lupron and made the decision that that would be the treatment for me.
Oh, my urologist was upfront and honest, a surgeon by trade, but wasn't dead set that that's what I had to do, was very willing for me to meet with a radiation oncologist to get other information, and I appreciated that very much. So yeah, I felt like I had exhausted a lot of information, actually met with some docs at the U of M. So I really felt like I had done my due diligence in making a decision.
I mean, I felt like I did everything the way that I should. My outcome so far has been good. So no, I learned a long time ago, choose a path and go with it. And to be honest with you, it really wasn't the cancer I worried about. It was the side effects of the treatment. And I think that's what men who undergo prostate cancer really make the decision about the treatment. What can I live with? What are the things I can handle because of the treatment for prostate cancer? And I wish I would've known a little bit more about that before the process began, but I certainly learned a lot about it during the process.
Michael Salvadore, Jr.:
After my hearing came back to me in my doctor's office, my doctor, I asked him, "What do I do?" He said, "Call your urologist, go see him." So that was a Friday afternoon. On Wednesday, I was in my urologist office. We reviewed the results of my PSA, and my wife was with me. We had a very long discussion about possible treatments and places to be treated, and we got a list of names from him. I'm very grateful to my urologist for all of the doors that he opened for me.
And I went on a road show. I went to Boston. I visited Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's, Beth Israel. I went to John Hopkins, went to Duke, I went to Yale, I went to Sloan Kettering. For the next probably 35, 40 days, all I did ... Not all I did, but it was a mission to seek out the best care that I could get, which was the advice that my PCP had given me, "Go where you get the best care." And I was relentless. It was my life, it was my two daughters, it was my wife, it was my sisters and my family, and I wasn't going to back down.
Oh, I saw all the top doctors at Johns Hopkins. I saw the chief of medical oncology at Sloan. I saw a chief urologist at Duke. I saw the doctors at Cleveland. I spoke to the doctors at Beth Israel. You have to ... One of the most important things of your path and your journey and your fight is to be an advocate, to demand for yourself that you get the attention of the best doctors that you can find and that you go where you find the best doctors, and you have to demand that. You have to be the advocate. You have to be a tireless advocate, a relentless advocate.