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My dad is turning 80 this year.
He was diagnosed with prostate cancer yesterday. Since he lives in a different city, I asked him to read me the results over the phone—this is what he told me:
- prostate adenocarcinoma
- PSA 63
- Gleason 5+5
That’s all the information I have for now.
He’s scheduled for a bone scan at the end of the month—that should tell us if there's any metastasis.
In the meantime, I’m trying to wrap my head around these findings.
What exactly do these numbers indicate?
Based on these specific metrics, what are the odds that the cancer has already spread to the surrounding tissue?
Thanks in advance for any insight. I won't pretend—I am incredibly scared.
Maria Fisher46 said:It’s possible you’re dealing with two separate issues here. One could be an acute intestinal infection—and I should clarify, I can't give medical diagnoses over a forum—which would explain the diarrhea and general malaise. You're likely dehydrated, too, which often triggers those heart palpitations. Then there's the second possibility: something related to the tingling sensations you've been experiencing, which might even tie back to thyroid dysfunction.
Thanks for the response. Just one quick follow-up: could those tingles—which haven't gone away—along with this occasional weakness in my limbs (it isn't everywhere at once), possibly point to a potassium deficiency? Also, I realized I forgot to mention a detail that might matter: I'm currently following a high-protein, low-carb diet.
I am 41 years old—currently breastfeeding a healthy 4.5-month-old baby girl.
For about 4 or 5 days now, I’ve been dealing with some digestive issues—specifically diarrhea.
Ever since giving birth, I’ve had occasional tingling sensations in my left hand—I had an emergency C-section, and was under an epidural prior to that.
Yesterday, that tingling sensation spread to my right leg as well.
On top of that, I experienced heart palpitations and a general sense of weakness.
So, I headed to the ER.
They ran an EKG—everything looked fine. Sinus rhythm at 80 bpm.
They also noted: Two hours of heart rate monitoring showed no extra beats or pauses.
They drew blood. Here are the results—they didn't list the reference ranges, so I'll bold the two things I'm most concerned about:
Intermediate electrical os. L7.6
E 4.73
Hb 136
Hct 0.388
MCV 82.02
MCH 28.8
MCHC 351
T 146
AST 19
ALT 23
CK 45
LDH 136
Urea 4.9
Creatinine 63
Na 138
K 3.4
Cl 105
IRS 7.1
FBI 31.8
I was given orders to complete an OGTT and a stool culture, which I plan to do shortly.
In the meantime, I have a few questions.
I had an OGTT during my pregnancy and those results were normal.
About an hour before yesterday's blood draw, I ate some strawberries and vanilla ice cream— I assume that could have spiked my IRS levels?
What concerns me most—and honestly, what is frightening me—is this very high FBI level. From what I understand, a normal FBI reading is under 5, but mine jumped to 31.8.
I suspect it might be some kind of bacterial inflammation, given my digestive symptoms. But just to settle my nerves, what would that level look like if we were talking about something malignant?
P.S. One more thing. I recently participated in a study where they tested my thyroid hormones. I was told over the phone that my TSH is a bit low—I don't have the official report yet—so they suggested I re-test in about 10 days.
But I'm primarily focused on this FBI reading because, frankly, it sounds terrifying.
Thanks to anyone who can offer some insight. 🙂
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