Aug 27, 2021 – Rising PSA

Since my last post many things have changed. The main thing is that my PSA has increased from 0.22 to 0.30 in one quarter which means that doubling time is 6 months. This concerns me and concerns my doctor so I have now added Casodex to my drugs. I have no other symptoms of course and I did have that Axumen PET scan that showed no growth but the concern is still there because of the rising PSA levels.

To add insult to injury, I also have had a rough time with diverticulitis. I don't know what started the flare-up but I suspect that it's my heavily-weighted nut diet. On one night just before my flare-up I remember I had three cups of nuts.

The pain of diverticulosis is incredible. Almost as bad as the diverticulosis itself was trying to get an appointment with my primary care doctor.  I ended up having to go to Urgent Care.  When I finally did get an appointment with my primary care doctor, I discovered that the Urgent Care doctor prescribed a drug that actually made my condition worse. When I finally did get to see my primary care doctor I was able to also get an appointment to get a CT scan.

Unfortunately the CT scan identified a 7 mm kidney stone.  This raised the question, “What was causing the pain?  …Diverticulosis or the kidney stone?  My primary care doctor only gave ma the message to see my urologist and so didn’t help answer this.  Frustratingly I couldn’t get to talk to him about it because of the wall of staff built around him. 

Miraculously I was able to set up a same day appointment with my urologist!  My urologist informed me that this had to be fixed and that the only way it was going to be fixed would be using a ureteroscope through my urethra and bladder to my ureter, where the stone is.  There, using a laser he will break up the stone and bring it back out.  He wanted to perform the procedure the next day!  Fortunately for me, I have very little pain, so we don’t have to go off half-cocked. Normally this would be messy but because of my scar tissue due to the radiation it increases the risk that my sphincter muscle gets damaged.

This is not to mention the risk of going to the hospital when all of the hospitals in the area are filled with Covid patients. I'm scheduled in a week to have the operation and I'm hoping maybe we can at least try to use ultrasound to break up the stone. I don't think my urologist is going to say that is a good strategy because of the size of the stone.

I will admit that I have some fears about what's going to happen next week 

What To Do Next

Of course the next step is to get rid of the kidney stone.  While dealing with that, I will take the Casodex and see what effect that will have on my rising PSA.

Until then I look forward to some relaxation of the pressure Covid is putting on all of us.

Les