The Reality After Surgery

For some men, surgery is the end of their treatment. Unfortunately for me, it was the beginning of long term management. I had positive margins and lymph node involvement, so I was placed on hormone therapy (ADT). Because there may still have been microscopic traces of prostate cancer remaining.

Prostate cancer feeds on testosterone. Remove the testosterone and you remove the fuel. That is the goal. Hormone therapy drives testosterone levels close to zero. It is effective. But testosterone is also essential to a man's overall health and sense of viability.

Unfortunately my PSA never dropped to undetectable. In the following three months there was always a trace amount present. Typically PSA was 0.2. Yes, that's a great number - If you still have your prostate.

So I had to face a new reality. The cancer was not completely gone. I would have to continue to deal with it, probably for the rest of my life. I had come so far, but now I knew I would have to go even further. 

I was in a much better place, but now a new battle would have to be waged.

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