Doctor didn't do routine PSA. Now we're screwed.
Posted , 10 users are following.
Guidelines came out in 2012 that recommended that it was better that a relative few men died of prostate cancer than more men suffer avoidable impotency or incontinence.
The medical system had the knowledge and ability to detect PC and save the lives of men but it knowlngly abondoned them. My husband is one of the victims.
He had physicals in 2012 and 2015 but doctor didn't offer or mention PSA testing. He believed he was healthy. Then in 2016, he developed symptoms and finally, when PSA was done it was 28 and he was found to have a Gleason of 4+5 with all 12 cores with cancer.
As his wife, I know I should support him but I'm so angry that he's been screwed by the medical system that I can't function. I'm of no use to anyone because I'm so angry. I understand that most family doctors in USA didn't follow the guidelines but here in Canada I guess the system will do anything to save money. Maybe they made a deal with pharmas. Just think of the revenue from boomers getting mets cancer and needing drugs.
Is anyone else in this boat or are we all alone?
0 likes, 25 replies
poolsadie barbara93762
Posted
So sorry to hear about your husband, however I don't think your case is isolated. My husband starting having abdominal pain and went the doctor (Ontario, Canada). They did urine tests which showed blood in urine. Sent him for ultrasound (bladder) which came back clear, then nothing further. A week or so later my hubby started having red pee and we went to the ER, where they did a further ultrasound and said you have a small kidney stone no further tests needed. My concern was he was still having blood in urine 3 weeks later with no pain (unusual for stones). I called the doc and asked for requisition (we would pay) for PSA test. She called my hubby said he didn't need it as he doesn't have any symptoms and it's not a clear test. I asked him to call and get the requisition as we are paying for it, she still said no and had him make an appointment...he went had another urine test which showed high amounts of RBC in urine. She has now referred him to a urologist!! My husband is 58 and I am still bewildered as to why she wouldn't give requisition (besides giving an update on 'normal' guidelines. If I want to pay there shouldn't be an issue...now we will wait and see, his appointment is 8th December.
barbara93762 poolsadie
Posted
You are correct. My husband's case is not isolated. Canadian guidelines direct that no screening be done on high risk men. There are similar American guidelines but the big difference is that they direct an informed discussion about the pros and cons of the test. In Canada, men are purposely kept ijn the dark.
I've heard stories similar to yours where doctors expressed very strong resistance to providing a requisition for a test for a man in the high risk (55-69) age group. 7% of these men will have aggressive cancer which, if caught early, can be cured. Ontario saves 149 million/year by not having a screening program. I actually believe that family doctors are penalized if their patient has a PSA test as bizarre as that seems. I will send you a private message.
miss_sue barbara93762
Posted
I hope your latest appointments have gone well. Sorry to hear of yet another heart breaking story of the injustice of not screening for prostate cancer . Collectively it is going to take a major effort to make such nonsense go away . Today I relived yet again the story of Daves death from Proatate Cancer . It sickens me beyond believe that we live in a province that accepts the fact that 2,400 men will die many times ofpreventative deaths from such a horrible disease. I struggle daily to come to grips at the thought of what Dave went through knowing you are dying as the cancer went to bone and took over every bone in his body .What is appolling as well is the fact the Canadian Task Force Guidlines are nit yhe giudlines reccomdations of the Canadian Urological society. Do you know there are not even urologist that sit on the Canadian Task force. The guidelines are based on a study that was so tainted its not even worth the paper its written on.. Barbara is completely right it is about the cost .
geoff90305 barbara93762
Posted
I do not agree with the USA or Canada policies;they are just assembing a large group of men with advanced PCa that will pop out of the woodwork any year now.
miss_sue geoff90305
Posted
Geoff after you get Prostate cancer the government willingly pays for the psa test . After Dave was diagnosed with a psa of 80 and we payed for that test any of the tests after were covered.Dave had 41 psa tests that the government coverered. In the end it wasn't that any of those tests helped us only to know Dave was dying more at each and every increase . The one that was the most important of all time was the one we were willing to pay for when Dave was 57 . The one that could have caught his cancer at a much lower grade. The very one his nurse practioner wouldn't order reccomend because she said Dave was to young to worry about PC and besides my husband ""Looked Healthy""
geoff90305 miss_sue
Posted
barbara93762 geoff90305
Posted
Paying for the test is not even the major issue. The guidelines implicitly recommend keeping PSA a secret from men and discouraging it if they ask for it. If our doctor had mentioned it we could have researched it and made a choice. Paying for it is secondary. Instead, the doctor didn't mention it. She gave my husband a full physical and a clean bill of health. She was being deceptive and unethical and acting as an agent of the governement.
This province saves 149 million a year by putting mens lives at risk and forcing them to suffer with high risk or advanced cancer. They must think that living on ADT is a picnic.
I suspect that somewhere deep within the Ministry of Health they've made a calculation and realized that if they let men fester and rot with aggressive prostate cancer, then likely when it is finally detected, it will be metastatic. Hurray! they'll only have to pay for a few years of hormone therapy and will save a bundle on pension payments.
The American Task Force Guidelines recommend informing men of the PSA and allowing them to make a decision once they know more.