My PSA journey begins with a seemingly harmless score of 2.6 in 2017 at the age of 62. My testosterone was low, and I started taking supplements. That put me back in the normal range, I felt more energy, and strangely enough, the weakness in my right calf attributed to an ‘S1 disconnect’ by my neurologist that was causing me to limp some improved to the point that the limp was gone.
I had been working as a high school math teacher for the last 10 years, after switching careers from 30 years as a computer engineer.
My PSA score stayed relatively low for the next 5 years but in 2022 it crossed over 4.0 at age 67. A year prior I started dating someone new and life was grand.
My urologist said it was time for a prostate diagnostic. I was unenthusiastic and suggested a second test, which somehow got delayed 6 months until May of 2023. That score came in at 5.13 , and then 5.3 and then another a month later in October showed 5.38. Prostate MRIs were now available and covered by insurance and that became the diagnostic of choice. Armed with a Mid-November date for the MRI, I restarted my Keto diet since I was still overweight.
The MRI showed a mass, and that meant a biopsy on Dec 14th, which showed the presence of prostate cancer, stage 2, Gleason score 7 (3 – 4). My urologist told me to stop the testosterone supplements and so I did. A subsequent visit to the urologist in early January after another PSA of 6.39 yielded the recommendation of a radical proctectomy. That left me in a state of total disbelief / shock. I pleaded for some time to make such a monumental decision as I thought long and hard about what I could do about this. My urologist said that the time for watchful waiting normally ends at this point, but that a brief window of less than a year was all that was available to be reasonably sure the cancer would not spread and become incurable. Three month observation points would be assessment points.
It was at this time, in early January, that I began my mission to try to do something about this in a really meaningful way. I saw it as a last ditch effort to avoid surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, and get my life back, which I saw slipping through my hands as a newly remarried guy who had begun living an amazing second life.
In late March I did my latest PSA test, but I was too close to my urologist appointment, so that data wasn’t available for discussion. The talk centered at first around the 6.39 score and a PSA doubling of potentially less than a year, and that it was time for the operation. He worried I was delaying a little too long and he double checked that I was following his advice and had stopped the testosterone which I had as instructed. I discussed what I was doing nutrition-wise and supplement-wise, but he was unresponsive to that information. (I later learned that this “Alternative Medicine” falls outside the standard practices of medical care, and that was probably why he did not comment on it.) At this point I was preparing myself for the inevitable, asking questions about my recovery which seemed gruesome. I will leave it to you to review those details elsewhere.
We set up a tele-conference for April 11.
And then it happened. I got the email to look to MyChart for my new PSA score. I nervously signed in and scrolled down the page as my new wife stood behind me as anxious as I was. . .
4.7 !!!!!
Could it be a mistake? Did I misread it? Had it really dropped that much? That was a test on March 26th, reported on March 28th, a few days before my primary care physician (PCP) appointment on April 2. What would my PCP say?
Well, my PCP told me it was pretty amazing to see such a drop, but that it was only one data point. Could I replicate that? Could I get it to continue to drop?
For now, he would applaud me with a cautious ‘hurrah’, but that continued drops in PSA might find me invited to physician conferences telling my story. That sounded exciting.
I wrestled with the notion of waiting 90 days to start this website and offer what I know to others in the hopes that I am actually on to something.
I decided that if I were one of the 22,500 scheduled for a proctectomy in the next 90 days, I would want this information now. And the new test results are in. PSA now down to 3.3 !!!!
A huge overall drop. I can’t wait to speak to my doctors about it. But I’ve created my monthly lists and explained what I did for others to learn my story of how I am saving my prostate and my lifestyle.
I am not a doctor, and what follows is not medical advice or even advice for anyone else that I recommend to follow. I learned all the things that follow from various sources, very little of it is new or done for the first time. Perhaps some I implemented in a somewhat different way, desperate to save my prostate from extraction and willing to try new, either untested or only lightly tested options. It is only my story for what I did during the time of a wonderful drop in my PSA. I don’t know which things I did actually contributed in any particular way, but the results for me speak for themselves. Maybe when my PSA gets to 2.0 or so, I may cut out half of what I am doing and see which half was the most effective. Right now, I still do everything since I want to continue to live with my prostate in my body and die of something else. I get to have another MRI in November I think, and I will get another diameter reading for my ‘index’ tumor. It was 1.4 cm last November.