medical exam question!@

[Beer Snob-50]

has anyone had a prostate biopsy done? what's it like? my doctor just called me and is sending me to a urologist as my prostate is enlarged and my psa is 3.9.

[av8rdave]

1. My Dad had one done several years ago

He said they dope you up about the same way they do for a colonoscopy, and it should be a painless procedure.

Glad your Doc is ordering the biopsy. The peace of mind will be worth it!

Hope it's quick and easy!

[Beer Snob-50]

2. thanks

i hope so also.

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. Don't assume...

.
Depending on a lot of factors (age, family hist, gen health, etc. etc. etc), the
urologist may just choose to watch your psa numbers.
.
Don't count your rectums 'til they've been scratched.
.
.
Wait, um...
.

[Beer Snob-50]

5. there is no history in my family.

maybe he will just keep an eye on it.

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. My dad had it...

.
My psa elevated (but not much -- under 4 but don't remember), slightly
enlarged but no nodules. Other stuff going on -- urologist decided on
wait and see without a biopsy.
.
Far as I can tell, my prostate hasn't fallen off.
.
.
.
Yet.
.

[LeftyFingerPop]

4. My good friend, age 52, had one recently...

He said it was uncomfortable, but not painful.

They way he described it:

They took 12 small biopsies, going in a circle. He said it felt like a rubber band snapping each time they did a biopsy.

He had some relatively minor bleeding for a few days after.

They found that 2 of the biopsies were questionable, and 2 were cancerous.

He will be getting his prostate removed next week with the laproscopic DaVinci surgery.

With all that being said...DON'T assume that you have cancer...there are apparently a lot of things that can cause a high PSA.

Best of luck!

[Beer Snob-50]

6. THANKS FOR THE GOOD KARMA

I am trying to think positive until i meet with the guy.

[LeftyFingerPop]

7. Some more good thoughts...

1) My friend's family is loaded with prostate cancer...yours is not.

2) As MFM said above...they may indeed just decide to "wait and watch".

3) If it does indeed turn out to be cancer, it is one of the "best" ones to get...especially when caught early.

4) Did they give you any antibiotics to make sure that an infection is not what is causing the high PSA? This is the first thing they did with my friend.

5) My friend's PSA was substantially higher than yours.

[Beer Snob-50]

8. they gave me no antibotics

i have had three different regular psa tests as well as one free psa test (which measures the amount of free psa particles in your blood. the higher the number the better chance of cancer). because the psa level dropped to below 4 during that test, they will not use those results.

again thanks for the info. i appreciate it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. A few weeks ago the doctors told my father in law he had a dangerously high PSA count

Then they found out that they misread the tests and his PSAs were around normal. So don't panic until you are told otherwise.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Thought you might like to read this from today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35688845/ns/health-cancer/

[unc70]

15. Also an NYT OpEd by Ablin who discovered PSA, see my other posts in thread

Ablin has often seemed reckless in taking contrarian posistion, most famously by arguing in Lancet that AIDS was not caused by HIV.

[Orrex]

12. I suspect that it's nowhere near as bad as a standard gynecological exam with pap smear

I've never had a biopsy, but if I had to guess...

[unc70]

14. A prostate biopsy is considerably worse than a pap smear

The procedure involves inserting an ultrasound-guided probe, the cutting through the bowel wall to extract a dozen core samples from one of the most sensitive parts of a man's body.

My first one was without sedation, and I swore that would never happen again and that I would be changing urologist immediately. That was years ago and not reflective of recent treatment.

[unc70]

13. Just posted a lot about this in Health forum

I have had several bipsies and only the first one was a nightmare because that urologist did not thing one needed anything for pain. That hurt like Hell. Later ones I was sedated and pain was not an issue. You are likely to have some blood in your urine and ejaculate for longer than they tell you to expect.

After years of watchful waiting, a biopsy confirmed cancer and just over a year ago I had surger confirming State 2 prostate cancer beginning to grow outside the prostate. I got ckear syrgucak margins and ev3rything looks good after a year.

My post today in the Health group was in response to Richard Ablin's OpEd in the NYTimes advocating that we not waste money on the PSA tests. He has credibility as one who identivied the antigen 40 years ago. He loses it from actions since then, the most famous his arguments back in the late 1980's that AIDS was not caused by HIV.

Check out the Health forum. Good luck tomorrow. I am willing to help any way I can, either publicly in this thread or in private messages.