"BSD guy" <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:slrnf88sld.6sn.nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> All --
>
> I'm a 40 year Crohns patient who's had an ileostomy for 25 years. Six
> years ago, I had a total proctocolectomy performed because of
> suspicion of colon cancer in a difficult to survey spot. Since I'd
> had the ileostomy for such a long time and entertained no real
> thoughts of getting it reconnected, the decision to have this surgery
> was kind of a no-brainer. There was some discussion with my surgeon
> as to whether to leave a rectal stump to make prostate cancer
> detection easier. In the end (literally), the then-current risk of
> colon cancer as well as the risk of cancer in the rectal stump seemed
> great enough that I went with the total proctocolectomy.
>
> As things turned out, colon was negative for cancer. Naturally, my
> PSA started spiking two years later. Four biopsies and thirty
> some-odd samples later, I finally got a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
> My local urologist said the proctocolectomy rules out a number of
> treatment options leaving, basically, external beam radiation or
> radical prostatectomy. Wondering if anyone else here has been in the
> same situation and what you wound up doing. Urologist is leaning
> towards surgery over radiation due to age (51) and relatively good
> numbers (total PSA 6.9, free PSA 9%, Gleason score 6, PSA doubling
> time in the neighborhood of four years). He suspects multiple
> previous surgeries for Crohns will make the RP harder rather than
> easier and I tend to believe him. Ideas???
I tried to reply to this the day you posted it but Google somehow
swallowed my posting.
I think it's hard for anyone to give you any advice with this.
Your health problems are very specialized and I don't recall
anyone in the group having experience with Crohns' Disease
or with proctocolectomy.
Unfortunately, it may also be difficult to find a surgeon or a radiation
oncologist who has a lot of experience with treating both of your
conditions.
Without knowing anything whatever about Crohns or your previous
surgery, I can say only that your doctor's recommendation of
surgery over radiation based on your age and diagnosis is very
conventional. I believe that the majority of doctors would probably
agree with him.
However, I will also point out that with your numbers, radiation also
has a good record of success, so if radiation is easier to take in
your special cir***stances, I wouldn't rule it out just because of
your age. But I know zero about whether xrays are likely to damage
areas of your body that have already been previously damaged
by surgery. It may be that both radiation and surgery pose risks
for you that other patients don't have.
Perhaps you can consult with an expert on proctocolectomy and
get some expert advice from that quarter on whether surgery or
radiation is likely to pose a greater risk for you. In your situation,
my very, very non-expert opinion is that all of the conventional
treatments have a high likelihood of success (assuming they are
done by capable practitioners) and minimizing side effects may
be more im****tant for you.
But you need the advice of doctors, not Internet mavens like me.
> BSD guy
Were you part of the Berkeley Software Distribution team? Or
are you just a fan of the software? Or have I mistaken the
meaning of the acronym?
Alan
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