Patient Mark Shares his Prostate Cancer Story After High-intensity Focused Ultrasound (HiFU)

Thanks for tuning in to the Armor Men’s Health Hour Podcast today, where we bring you the latest and greatest in urology care and the best urology humor out there.

On today's episode, Donna Lee and Dr. Mistry are joined by Mark, a very special guest and patient of NAU. Mark first met Donna Lee in his days as a bartender at Cap City Comedy Club, where our very own Donna Lee McBride has been a resident comedienne.

Mark now also knows NAU and Dr. Mistry very well. Mark was first referred to NAU for an elevated PSA (prostate specific antigen), a blood test that is commonly used to screen for prostate cancer. He went on to have a prostate biopsy done which resulted in finding cancer, and he shares with us what he was thinking and feeling when he received his diagnosis.

Mark describes his decision-making process when reviewing the options for treating his prostate cancer, which ultimately led him to selecting HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound). Listen in today for an insightful conversation between a patient and his surgeon, and to find out what going through the HIFU is really like.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

We enjoy hearing from you! Email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode!

Phone: (512) 238-0762

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:09

Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.

Dr. Mistry 0:13

Welcome to the Armor Men's Health Hour, I'm Dr. Mistry, your host here with my cohost, Donna Lee.

Donna Lee 0:21

Hello! Happy Sunday everybody, KLBJ.

Dr. Mistry 0:24

Welcome back. Prostate cancer makes a big part of what we do, communicating the importance of screening as well as treatment options. It's something that we do quite frequently on this show and I don't think there's a better person to do that than a patient that's experienced it themselves. And so we're really lucky to have one of our patients, Mark. Mark, welcome.

Mark 0:42

Hi. Thanks.

Dr. Mistry 0:42

Now, Mark and Donna, you guys had a relationship before he became a patient.

Donna Lee 0:46

We have a history!

Mark 0:46

...first day, walked in and saw her face, and put me at ease.

Donna Lee 0:51

Mark used to be the bartender at Cap City Comedy for how many years?

Mark 0:54

Over 20 unfortunate...24 years. 24 is the unfortunate part. The experience was fantastic.

Donna Lee 1:02

Oh yeah, you got to meet everybody.

Mark 1:04

Everyone, and I loved working there.

Donna Lee 1:05

And then the famous comics that come in will always ask about Mark, if he's there....still here.

Mark 1:11

To this day.

Donna Lee 1:11

Yeah, yes.

Dr. Mistry 1:11

That's awesome. And yeah, and Donna Lee, our resident comedienne and practice manager is somebody that knows that comedy...

Donna Lee 1:19

That comedy world well. I used to be a regular there and Mark has given me more free drinks than I can ever talk about.

Mark 1:26

They were comps.

Donna Lee 1:26

I mean comp drinks. Exactly. And lots of fried food. It was great. Thanks Mark.

Dr. Mistry 1:31

So, Mark, you were referred to us for an elevated PSA, which is how a lot of patients get to a urologist. You're pretty young. What do you think prompted getting tested and then what was your number when you were sent to us?

Mark 1:42

Well, um, my father had prostate cancer so I was already in the zone to get tested when I was younger. So I was tested at 49. My levels were at 7.8 initially and then a followup was at 8.1.

Dr. Mistry 1:55

And that's a pretty high number. I mean, for a young guy.

Mark 1:58

That's what I'm told. Yeah.

Donna Lee 2:00

That's why he's here.

Dr. Mistry 2:02

What were some of the things that you were really scared about before you saw me and what was going through your head kind of at that time?

Mark 2:07

Cancer, mainly. You don't think of it as a simple thing. Oh, the worst fears come to mind. Just needed to know what the situation was so that I could learn about it and then know how to proceed.

Dr. Mistry 2:20

What did your dad experience in terms of his experience with prostate cancer treatment and how did he do?

Mark 2:26

Well, he found out much older. He was 68 when he found out. He decided to go full-on...

Dr. Mistry 2:31

Prostatectomy.

Mark 2:35

I was like,"How do you say it?" So he went for the full situation back then. I think that was about 35 years ago.

Dr. Mistry 2:41

A lot of things have changed in terms of treatment and you really got to benefit from some of that, those advancements in treatment.

Mark 2:48

Absolutely.

Dr. Mistry 2:49

And so we did your prostate biopsy. And was that something that you were scared about undergoing?

Mark 2:54

It was just a nervous situation for me. I had never had any type of surgical procedure done, never been sick or hospitalized. So this was the first major procedure that I had ever done. So, I'm a little nervous going into it, you know, after having met with you and talked with Donna and the staff there, which is fantastic by the way.

Dr. Mistry 3:13

Thank you.

Mark 3:13

They put me at ease so I decided to go with it.

Dr. Mistry 3:16

And so we did that prostate biopsy and then ultimately diagnosed you with prostate cancer?

Mark 3:20

Correct.

Dr. Mistry 3:21

Were you prepared mentally for that diagnosis? Were you surprised how H I mean because you were already kind of primed?

Mark 3:27

Yeah.

Dr. Mistry 3:27

But still in that, in that environment. Tell me how you responded and what went through your mind.

Mark 3:32

I thought I was prepared. It's still shocking when you hear the words"you have prostate cancer." S,o it was initially the PSA just suggested that it was a possibility that there were other options that could be a possibility, but that the only way really to find out was to have the biopsy. So then finding out that information was a little overwhelming. But I had one option which was to move forward. Right.

Dr. Mistry 3:59

So we felt like your cancer was more aggressive than one that we could just watch. And we felt like that treatment should be, it should be offered to you.

Mark 4:07

Yeah. And I also think that my age had something to do with your reasoning.

Dr. Mistry 4:10

Absolutely.

Mark 4:11

Saying, you know, you're too young to not do anything, therefore you have to do something.

Dr. Mistry 4:16

Yeah. A lot of people who are especially around the age of 50, we kind of tell them that even if your cancer's going to act like a slow moving train, you got a lot of years for that train to cause some damage.

Mark 4:27

Exactly.

Dr. Mistry 4:27

And so we offered you a several different kinds of treatments. We offered you removal of the prostate, we offered you radiation, and then we offered you high intensity focused ultrasound or HIFU treatment, a relatively new treatment. And that's ultimately the one you went with. Uh, maybe you could tell us what was, what went on with that decision? What went through your mind on deciding what kind of treatment to go through?

Mark 4:48

Just many factors, but mostly I think my relative youth and wanting to maintain all of the faculties...HIFU has reduced percentage ratings of the major side effects like erectile dysfunction and incontinence. Those two things, way too young to deal with in my brain. You know, cancer is one thing, but the other two things are extended lifelong issues that I'm not ready and was not ready and still probably will never be ready to deal with. So I figured those two things were like the major factors that led me to, to HIFU.

Dr. Mistry 5:25

You really illustrate the double-edged sword of being young with prostate cancer. The double-edged sword is that you want to be super aggressive in patients who are young, but you also know as your physician that the side effects of treatment are things that you're going to experience for a much longer time in your life.

Mark 5:43

Exactly.

Dr. Mistry 5:44

And so, you know, giving you advice, giving young people advice is always tough because on one hand, if we're too lackadaisical about being aggressive about treatment, then we got to deal with this cancer again and again and again. And if we're overly aggressive, then we've got to deal with the side effects of treatment, which take, you know, the further you get away from your diagnosis, the less you remember how scared you were of dying and the more you think about all the functional loss that you're experiencing.

Mark 6:09

Exactly.

Dr. Mistry 6:11

So we did HIFU on you and we did some preparation for it. Maybe talk through what that experience was like of going through HIFU, because it's a procedure that's not offered to everyone and so not a lot of people are going to have family members that went through it. So your experience is going to really give people a lot to think about.

Mark 6:32

Right. Just talk about the HIFU specifically, or the Terp proceeding the HIFU?

Dr. Mistry 6:37

Let's just talk about the HIFU.

Mark 6:40

Simple procedure really. And the facility was amazing. The staff there was incredible, put me at ease. Went under, anesthesia and woke up a couple of hours later and really felt no pain at all. I guess the main situation with that is that you have a catheter in for a week and you have to maintain that, generally stayed at home, took a week's vacation. And then at the end of the week, the day that I had the catheter removed, I went back to work.

Dr. Mistry 7:14

That's awesome.

Mark 7:15

Yeah.

Dr. Mistry 7:16

And do you think that you experienced a lot of pain in that week or subsequently?

Mark 7:19

For the HIFU specific? Very minimal pain and very minimal discomfort. I was shocked, quite frankly. I thought it was going to be a lot more severe than that, but it was not. It was very simple. I literally felt like I was on vacation at home rather than...

Donna Lee 7:42

Staycation!

Mark 7:42

...yeah, just watched a lot of movies and I was very comfortable.

Dr. Mistry 7:46

Well, that's awesome. And your cancer was amenable to something called a focal or regional HIFU. We didn't have to treat the entire prostate just where the cancer was. It's what HIFU allows us to do more than any other technology. And you picked that because you wanted to maintain your continence and sexual function. Maybe you would share with us, you know, how's that going?

Mark 8:08

It's where everything works great. No, there had been no side effects for me as a result of the HIFU. I have no problems with erectile dysfunction and zero issues with incontinence.

Donna Lee 8:21

That's awesome.

Mark 8:21

So I feel very blessed to have made the right choice for me. I'm coming in and out of it with the results that I have. I have lots of energy, working out at the gym again. I'm working 10 hours a day at my job.

Dr. Mistry 8:37

Oh no.

Mark 8:37

Not the comedy club anymore. It's not as funny there. It's true. But yeah, just a lot of stamina, energy, sex drive, all of it. It's still there.

Dr. Mistry 8:48

Well, it's an incredible, you're, you're an inspiration and a real example for so many patients and somebody that people can look to to know, even though they may be faced with a really troubling diagnosis like prostate cancer, that there is you know, hope at the end of that tunnel and that, you know, maintaining your function is something that a lot of people can expect.

Mark 9:08

Yeah. Was the goal from the beginning and I'm very fortunate I believe to have found you and your clinic and Donna being there as well and took me step by step through the whole process.

Dr. Mistry 9:19

Well that's awesome. It's almost like fate.

Mark 9:20

Yeah. It does feel that way.

Donna Lee 9:22

We've had lots of texts and emoticons and"Love you?" and,"You're going to be fine!"

Mark 9:27

There's a lot of that happening. So a lot of support.

Dr. Mistry 9:30

Well, Mark, thank you so much for joining us and lending us your experience. It's something that I hope that our listeners will really kind of build upon and face a new prostate cancer diagnosed with some more confidence.

Mark 9:43

Great. I'm glad to be of assistance in that.

Donna Lee 9:45

Awesome. Well. Thank you.

Dr. Mistry 9:46

Well, thank you so much. Donna Lee, you want to tell people how to get ahold of us?

Donna Lee 9:48

Yes, you can email us armormenshealth@gmail.com. If you have any questions about Mark's experience, I'm certainly happy to reach out to him. If you've got any direct questions. Our email address again is armormenshealth@gmail.com. You can reach us during the week at(512) 238-0762. And our website is armormenshealth.com. Thank you so much, Mark, for coming in. We appreciate you so much. Awesome. We'll be right back after these messages.

10:14

Dr. Mistry wants to hear from you. Email questions to armormenshealth@gmail.com. We'll be right back with the Armor Men's Health Hour.