Dear Tracy and Shira (the daughter-in-law gets included in this one)
I am still experiencing fatigue, hot flashes, moments of weakness and night sweats following my 39 radiation sessions, which ended March 28. This morning I had a blood draw to measure my prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. The results came back in almost record time--and they are good.
A normal level is ................................................................................................4 or less.
Last September 13, my score was .............................................25 -- more than six times the maximum normal level, and right in the range where you worry about my prostate cancer spreading.
But I was only considered to be at stage two, because my enlarged prostate may have boosted the score beyond what the cancer was causing. (Note: the PSA score can be misleading, but my doctors were convinced that the PSA was relevant in this case, because it was shooting up rapidly from a score of 13 a few months earlier, after 10 years of gradual growth.)
Well, the latest figures are in:...............................................................0.02. Uh, that's not quite right. The score is actually less than 0.02, or less than 1/200th of the maximum normal of 4.
I think Dr. Canning had expected it to be in the neighborhood of 0.5. Amazing.
Love,
Dad
Test result language:
Date: 4-25-2017COMPONENT YOUR VALUE STANDARD RANGE
PSA (BECKMAN) LESS THAN 0.02 ng/mL 0.0 - 4.0 ng/mL The
Beckman PSA method was used to perform this assay. Results obtained with different assay methods shouldn't be used interchangeably. It is recommended that one assay method be used consistently to monitor a patient's course of therapy.
Date: 9-13-2016
PSA (BECKMAN) 25.0 ng/mL 0.0 - 4.0 ng/mL H (high)
The Beckman PSA method was used to perform this assay. Results obtained with different assay methods shouldn't be used interchangeably. It is recommended that one assay method be used consistently to monitor a patient's course of therapy.
No comments:
Post a Comment