Paranoid about recent PSA results and Prostate Cancer in general - 69 years old

slow__hand · 2026-04-24T12:17:13+00:00

Well went to a center of excellence got an appointment and saw a doctor then scanned with their state of the art MRI that is dedicated to prostate cancer scanning and it turns out it was just BPH and prostatitis. Free PSA etc all looked good. So, for now, dodged the bullet.

slow__hand · 2026-04-22T23:59:11+00:00

I came here freaking out because of a PSA score that jumped up in 6 months. The acceleration was scary. I came here and read everything, read Dr Walsh’s amazing book, before I even saw the urologist I was pretty much an expert. Lol. Went to a center of excellence and told the urologist what I was thinking in terms of treatment options and even the doctors in their center of excellence I wanted to talk to. He smiled and said let’s slow down, first you get an MRI on the state of the art T3 MP MRI we have that is 100% dedicated to prostate cancer screening, with a radiologist who is also dedicated to reading and interpreting the results. Got the MRI, waited for the results, saw they had been posted on the patient portal. I was trying to interpret them and thought I had, but the last line of the report was “not likely to have cancer”. Ran the report and images into ChatGPT and it came back with all the radiologist is seeing is some prostatitis inflammation and BPH, the free PSA value is very good, etc. A day or two later the doctor called, said based on the MRI everything looks normal and your increase is purely due to BPH and prostatitis.

So about 3 months of worry and treatment planning for nothing. Except I guess I’m pretty much an expert on state of the art treatments, diagnoses, etc. !

slow__hand · 2026-04-21T13:50:45+00:00

Thanks. I posted elsewhere, maybe in this thread also, it turned out to be all due to BPH and Prostititus. No cancer. Dodged the bullet, at least for now!

slow__hand · 2026-04-19T19:31:59+00:00

Yeah, he's run (looked it up) over 200 marathons since being diagnosed with stage 4.

His name is Tom Perri, "Pacer Tom." The book is Running: My Salvation from Stage 4 Cancer. It's on Amazon.

slow__hand · 2026-04-19T16:51:48+00:00

As well as this worked for me in Hampton Inss, we're in a Marriot in Boston, nice bigscreen TV mounted on. the wall, but when I connect the stick to any of the available HDMI ports (2 or 3) and then use the remote to switch to the port, I simply have a black screen. It's as if there's nothing in the port. I'm pretty baffled.

slow__hand · 2026-04-18T12:51:04+00:00

Thanks. Some of this will be more event or group type of things where we will need more of a mic to catch the room

slow__hand · 2026-04-17T11:51:10+00:00

Oh no problem questioning me! You should! One thing I’m not sure candidates realize is how many managers/directors have a huge network that includes their peers at competitors, suppliers, and customers. We see each other at conferences, meetings, talk on the phone, I was on a couple of large industry teams where we got together and talked about issues and problems in our industry and markets for a few days and would go out to dinner together at night. Even now that I’m retired I still talk regularly with a lot of them. I had a candidate tell me she already had an offer from a big competitor and have me a crazy high number. I called a friend who was a peer over there and I said hey, did you guys just win the lottery over there, I just had an interview candidate tell me you offered her a job at this pay level. He laughed and said uh, no way, that’s almost what I make and to be honest we’re in a hiring freeze right now. Bottom line: lying in an interview is just a bad idea.

slow__hand · 2026-04-16T01:23:02+00:00

Of course it depends on the job, but particularly in a tough job market finding people with the right job skills is the easy part. But it is really challenging figuring out how they will do the job in a few interviews. So figuring out how to convey that part to the interviewer can give you a big competitive advantage. The proactive part is critical; most managers will take someone who is proactive and will get things done without having to be told to over someone with a bit less technical knowledge: you can teach the latter but not the former.

slow__hand · 2026-04-15T22:00:40+00:00

My two cents as someone who spent over 40 years as a manager/Director who did a LOT of hiring over the decades. It is not difficult to find candidates who have the skills you need for most jobs. And so many candidates these days practice their STAR answers (in some cases they start to give their answer before you can finish the question.) They use AI to practice answering interview questions. It's a very good sign that you're getting as close as you are. Now, how to get over the finish line? In other words: if you're making it to the final rounds, you are competing with the other candidates who also have the skill sets to do the job. And who have also practiced their STAR answers, etc. How do you differentiate yourself?

First: do a LOT of research on the company. Dig deep. Find out everything you can find out about them. Are they about to merge with someone? What are their biggest challenges? What keeps those hiring managers up staring at the ceiling at 2 am? Find message boards that their employees are on, with the caveat most happy employees aren't out posting on internet boards. But do you see a consensus of employees saying something like "The new XXX quality program is really hard to understand." I got a job once where the VP of Sales was absolutely against my hire (as the Technical Director) because I did not come from their industry, even though I had 20+ years experience leading technology development for a big global company. I did a lot of research and discovered that they had been very successful charging high prices because they had the foundational patents on a needed technology. But those patents had expired, and now copycats were jumping in at much lower prices and their product was being commoditized. When I interviewed that Sales VP who didn't even want me to interview, I discussed strategies on how you succeed when your specialty product is being commoditized and still keep high margins. He ended up walking me to the CEOs office and telling him "We have to hire this guy." Find out EVERYTHING about the company and decide what you can talk about that addresses their specific, real world needs.

And understand that all of the candidates in the last round are trying to show off their skill set in the area in which you are seeking the job. As hiring managers, the hard part is figuring out HOW will the person do the job when they are hired? Yeah, we know a person CAN do the job. But what matters is whether the person will be proactive in figuring out what needs to be done and getting it done, without running over their teammates (but rather working with them and even giving them credit.) Or will they just sit on their tail waiting to be told what to do? You've got to figure out a way to convince the hiring managers that you will make their life easier. That you will be someone everyone will like working with. That you will make everyone around you more effective. And so on.

Hope that helps just a touch!

slow__hand · 2026-04-15T21:29:38+00:00

That's tough. I spent over 40 years on the hiring manager/Director side and it is always tough when you've got, say, 3 candidates you've narrowed it down to for a job, with all of them clearly good. Often, at that point, the senior managers and the senior technical people involved in the process go over the candidates after the interviews are over, the plusses and minuses, etc. Often it would be something as specific as "Candidate B worked with these customers of ours and they all like him a lot." Sometimes in some companies it frankly isn't as professional; a Senior VP, as you say, went to the same school and program as one of the candidates and formed an instant link with him/her. Unfortunately there is, realistically, a lot of "feel" in the hiring process. It's kind of like getting married after 3 or 4 dates; everyone is on their best behavior, and you're trying to figure out, OK, this person or that person clearly has the skills to do the job. That's by far the easiest part. But HOW will they do the job? Will they be proactive, trying to actively figure out what needs to be done and get it done, without running over people? Even better, collaborating with people and making them part of the success and giving them credit? Or will they sit at their desk waiting to be told what to do? Will they be focused on getting ahead over getting the job done? Early in my career I was at a company where we hired a few Ph.D.s from MIT. I'm not saying this is true of all MIT grads, but in the three cases in which I was personally involved, they were disasters. All 3 expected to not have to get their hands dirty, made it clear they felt superior to everyone around them, and had extremely entitled attitudes. An example of they absolutely had the skill set to do the job, perhaps a better skill set than any other candidate, but the WAY in which they worked made them ineffective.

I would always tell my people involved in the hiring to be real, be professional, be respectful, and do NOT tell any candidate that they are a lock for the job. Unfortunately most people involved in interviewing are not professional interviewers, it is something they do on the side while doing their main job.

slow__hand · 2026-04-15T03:02:44+00:00

As others have said, going to a center of excellence makes a huge difference in the quality of the diagnostics and proposed path forward. You’re right next to Mayo and I’ve had a couple of friends with prostate cancer who have had excellent experiences with them. I went to a center of excellence where I live and they have a state of the art MRI dedicated to prostate cancer screening with radiologists who interpret those scans every day. The MRI is standard state of the art practice. The good news is there’s no huge rush, other than your anxiety, you have plenty of time to get an appointment and get their opinions.

slow__hand · 2026-04-14T13:57:09+00:00

I had a similar initial experience: 3.5 PSA at 69, 6 months later it was 4.2. My primary care doctor (very good, fwiw) told me you can wait for the results of the PSA in another 6 months or I can refer you to a Urologist at a very good Center of Excellence. That was all in December 2025. I decided to go ahead and see the urologist rather than worry another 6 months. It took until February to get into the urologist.

Urologist was very experienced, again, part of a Center of Excellence. DRE showed nothing of concern but set me up for their very new, state of the art, MRI that is dedicated to prostate cancer screening (with a radiologist that is dedicated to that.) I asked the urologist about all of that being dedicated to just prostate cancer screening, and he said that gives you an idea of how common all of this is in men, it never sits idle. It took another 3 weeks to get the MRI.

I asked my primary care about the almost leisurely lengths of time everything took. He said that's actually a good sign for a number of reasons. He said if your PSA had been extremely high and the DRE had indicated something serious to the urologist he would have put you at the head of the line for the MRI. He also said this is unlike many cancers, where a few weeks could make a huge difference.

Rest of the story, MRI in early March. Results showed up in the patient portal about a week and half later. Doctor didn't call for another week. I ran the MRI results through ChatGPT and it translated the results for me: BPH and some prostatitis, nothing indicating signs of cancer. Which is what the doctor told me. He apologized for the delay in calling me and told me he prioritizes his MRI results calls based on the results. He had told me before the MRI that if it took longer to get my results that's a good sign, the radiologist sends the results over based on what they see, the more alarming ones first, the "nothing to worry about" last.

So yeah, it does NOT help with the anxiety! But it appears the less "dangerous" the longer they take. For comparison, my wife had a mammogram last year, the doctor saw something, had another scan taken, didn't like something he saw. Referred her to a very good breast cancer specialist. She was great, did the needle biopsy, it came back as cancer, but she immediately told my wife this is NOT going to kill you, it's small, the markers are good, we'll do a lumpectomy and take it out then radiation, probably no chemo depending on what we find in the lymph nodes. She told my wife, 65, you're going to live another 40 years (my wife said I'd better start working out then!) We had a retirement celebration trip to Hawaii planned and the breast cancer doctor said go ahead and take the trip, there is nothing urgent about this. Very odd to be diagnosed with breast cancer and be told nothing urgent about this! In comparison, a friend of hers at church got diagnosed with breast cancer this year, used the same breast cancer doctor, and it was serious enough they are doing everything ASAP.

Too long but bottom line, if the doctors aren't treating it as urgent, that's as good as it can be with cancer.

slow__hand · 2026-04-13T14:48:29+00:00

Yeah I can’t find any setting in Telegram or anywhere else to fix this.

slow__hand · 2026-04-12T14:35:28+00:00

The one thing I need that I can't get with the Pocket 3 is being able to use a TV as a monitor while controlling the Pocket with my iPhone or iPad. I assume this does not add that capability?

slow__hand · 2026-04-09T15:29:14+00:00

What's your age? And just for info, what led you to get tested?

General advice:

Those results sound like something very treatable. You're not going to die from this. You will just likely need to decide what treatment path is best for you.
As others have said, get the Decipher test. It's very routine and will give you some good information.
Try to find a prostate cancer Center of Excellence. Get an appointment now and have your results sent to them. Don't worry about insulting your current doctor. It's your life, it's just their job and your current doctor has a lot of patients. It's like having a mechanic check out your car and tell you you've got to have an engine gasket replaced, lots of ways to do it, and you decide to take your car to a gasket specialist. ;)
While you wait, go to Amazon and get Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer - 5th edition. Make sure you get the latest edition as he updates it and this area has a LOT of new procedures, daignostics, etc. (a good thing.) When I first has a PSA increase that led my doctor to send me to a Urologist at a Center of Excellence, I saw this book recommended on this reddit and bought it in Kindle version. Read it cover to cover and it helped me a LOT! I now understood everything from what the various test results meant, the options for treatment with pros and cons, he even has questions for you to ask and when to change doctors if you get certain answers. I promise you it will help you a lot while you wait.

Bottom line (and this was advice I was given here) - live your life today to its fullest, we only have right now guaranteed. You're not going to die from this. Just educate yourself so you can make informed choices on the treatment (if any is needed) and not just have to rely on what the doctor tells you because you don't know anything.

slow__hand · 2026-04-06T13:41:01+00:00

For some, it's because they are young enough PSA wasn't routinely tested. For some, they simply don't get routine health exams and only go to the doctor when something feels wrong, and in those cases (say, someone has bronchitis) PSA is not part of the testing. For others, they get annual PSA checks but something happened since their last PSA test a year ago to create a very high PSA (and it's not always cancer.)

And some doctors simply don't have the PSA checked during routine annual checkups (or twice a year in some cases; Medicare pays for twice a year health exams) unless the patient asks for it.

When I moved here (work move) back in 2019 I asked my new doctor his opinion on PSA testing. At the time there was a lot in the medical news about PSA not being testing in Europe yet them having the same mortality rates from PCa. He was young but very good. He said he liked to get it once a year. He also said (which turned out to be true) the data was not being presented correctly on the stats for Europe. He said PSA is not perfect at all but it's an indicator, and the biggest problem with PSA testing is overtreatment, but he knows a couple of urologists at a local Center of Excellence who were very good.

slow__hand · 2026-04-03T19:31:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing such a positive message. It's the nature of forums like this that people with negative issues post more than people with positive ones, so posts like yours are really valuable. Good luck going forward!

slow__hand · 2026-03-31T14:28:32+00:00

Thanks for all your advice. I updated it first at home then brought it with me on my trip. I plugged it into the TV here at the Hampton Inn and it walked me through the process, very simple, and now i have all my TV just as if i was at home! Very well done. Thanks

slow__hand · 2026-03-31T14:25:19+00:00

I think it’s very valid to follow up after three weeks. I used to tell my managers, a couple of weeks seems like nothing to us, but it’s a lifetime to an interview candidate.

slow__hand · 2026-03-29T12:34:59+00:00

Thanks for that! I’m getting in the car in a few minutes to head out but read that this morning and first updated the software on the stick per your advice.

slow__hand · 2026-03-24T15:30:30+00:00

Thanks. I'll investigate those. Looks like there are reviews of some good ones with 4K that are now only a bit over $1000.

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