"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 10:59:45 +0100, GB wrote:

On 25/09/2017 09:53, tim... wrote:


"dennis@home" wrote in message
web.com...
On 24/09/2017 23:31, Bob Eager wrote:

They are complementary tests. Neither is definitive. Even a biopsy
isn't definitive!




They are definitive if they find something, but they do miss as I now
know.

no

it has a high percentage of false positives

PSA 100 means you definitely have cancer, but what do you do about a
PSA of 7 or 8? Retest in a couple of months, and see if it's going up?

It's the trend that matters. I graphed mine going slowly upwards, then it
accelerated.

In my case, a digital exam showed something, so did MRI, but the biopsy
was clear. I hated the biopsy.

I've had three of those. The last one (2010) landed me in hospital for
ten days with sepsis.

They wanted to do one in January this year (PSA was going up faster), but
decided a template biopsy would reduce the risk of infection (oh, I'm
allergic to some antibiotics too). Because I has to go to a different NHS
trust, they did an initial consultation. Consultant said my flow rate was
rubbish, and they could fix that and do the biopsy at the same time. It
would also reduce my PSA and make subsequent changes easier to see.

It was great. Went in 7am, 3 hour procedure(s), and went home lunchtime
the next day. Catheter for 5 days, went back for removal, tested me and
flow rate had increased by a factor of 6!

anybody who can't notice an immediate improvement in their flow rate is an
idiot

it is the degradation that's the problem. It's gradual

Procedure was a HoLEP - look it up.

That's the laser treatment

I though that was available as day surgery