What is Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Cancer occurs when cells of the prostate mutate and begin to multipl...
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What should we ask the doctor?
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My dad was told last week that his biopsy of his prostate came back as cancer. We have the first consultation on Tuesday and he asked if I would go with him. We lost my mom last year to colorectal cancer and I lived out of state for most of the ordeal. Therefore I was not able to go the doctor and don't really have much experience dealing with this other than getting updates over the phone, usually third hand because she was too sick and he was too freaked out to really listen. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again.
I am wondering if anyone can give me advice on what kinds of questions we should be asking when we go in to discuss treatments and options. I kind of want to know what to expect to have to know and what I need to remember and what I need to ask. I don't want to live in the dark with my dad's cancer and treatments and options. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Julianna Posted on 07/19/08, 10:07 pm |
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There are a number of treatment options you can ask about. External radiation, brachytherapy(radioactive seeds injected into the prostate) and surgery to remove the prostate. You can ask about the side effects for each of these treatments, followup treatments. length of treatments and which treatment is best for your father's particular cancer, i.e., early or more advanced. Hope this helps. 
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Read as much info on the subject you can, for each treatment possibility. Then what you don't understand or needs clarity...write it down on a list. That is my mistake with my husband, I had planned to go with him to his 1st oncology visit but something else came up....so he didn't ask much and I didn't have the chance...next visit I go...or I may just write the questions out and drop it off at the office and ask the dr to answer them and I will pick the list up later. A lot of the people on here have been through treatment of one kind or another and they are helping me with an awful lot of my questions. Good luck to you and your father.
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The "standard" treatments for contained prostate ca are the ones mentioned by Taelon. There are other factors to consider like your father's age and how aggressive the cancer appears, as well as side effects which can be common with all of these, primarily incontinence and impotence.
You should take a look at the discussion of HIFU on this board as an alternative treatment which seems just as effective but with less side effects. There is also the possibility of using alternative treatments like mushrooms and other herbs, and Reiki. Doctors call this "watchful waiting" because they consider it doing nothing to fight the cancer. Some of us would disagree. Good luck to you and your father, whatever he decides.
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I know this is rough on you as well as your Dad. As the significant other, I tried to learn everything I could before we went to the surgeon. If our case, we had too many ideas and not enough facts.
Have you (or your Dad) receive the handbook on prostate cancer? Either the doctor who diagnosed the cancer or the surgeon will give you one. It was extremely helpful for us. There are many options and each one is based on your Dad's age, health and lifestyle. We asked about the best option to remove ALL the cancer. We were lucky that it had not spread to any other regions. We opted for the surgery to completely remove the prostate. It's longer recuperation time and rough on the man's ego (needs a lot of hands-on care, could be embarrasing for some men.) We were advised that it was the best way to remove ALL cancer and the surgeon did his best not to remove all the nerves. My S/O goes for his third PSA test next week and so far, thank God, so good. How old is your Dad? Is he healthy otherwise? Keep us posted and we'll do what we can to help you. Today's Tuesday, hope this isn't too late. God Bless You. GeeWhiz1952
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