January 2012

Us TOO PEORIA

A Chapter of Us TOO International since March 1993

www.ustoopeoria.com

Time: Sharing groups at 7pm and speaker at 8pm

Classroom 3 &4 (Lower Level) Proctor Professional Bldg.

Speaker: Ms. Sara Campbell RN, BSN, OCN of Sanofi Oncology

Topic: Advanced Prostate Cancer.

Current Treatment and Future Directions.

If you would like to receive this newsletter via e-mail, please e-mail ustoopeoria@yahoo.com. By doing so, you help us to control our costs that are incurred through postal mail.

Dr. Tobias Kohler from Southern Illinois School of Medicine at Springfield spoke to our group in November and addressed the topic of treating incontinence and impotence. He told us about the various ways that he is able to help men who have trouble controlling their bladder as a result of treatment for prostate cancer. In many cases, men who choose surgery as their prostate cancer treatment option experience urethral damage as well as damage to the nerves that control erection. When the urethra is damaged, the patient may leak urine when they cough or sneeze. He stated that there are 55 million men in the U.S. that suffer from urinary control issues. Damage to the nerves that control erection is also a concern when choosing surgery. The nerves that control erection are often severed during surgery.

For incontinence, Dr. Kohler is able to insert a sling in the pelvis to hold the urethra up or an external sphincter valve which clamps onto the penis to control leakage, but it can cause irritation to the skin and infection. Catheters are used on occasion also. He stressed the fact that a person can live life dry. They don’t have to live with incontinence.

For erectile dysfunction, often times a patient has poor vascular function. This can be caused by diabetes, smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise, low testosterone, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol, or complications from prostatectomy surgery. Ways of treating erectile dysfunction includes pills, vacuum pumps, medication to put into the urethra, injections and surgery. Of the different options open to men, Dr. Kohler favors the penile implant because of the positive long term benefit to the patient. He inserts a three piece implant device into the penis and then places a small bulb that fits into the scrotum that when pumped, permits fluid from the reservoir to enter the device, thus providing an erection. When done using the device, the patient hits the deflate button and the fluid returns to the reservoir and the erection goes away. An erection lasts as long as the fluid is in the implant. Satisfaction statistics show that 95% of men favor the implant, 50% favor medication, 40% favor the injections and 40% favor the vacuum erection device.

If there are particular topics that you would like to see addressed, please contact us and we will do our best to make it happen.

Paul Killinger George Melton Fred Meyer Don Moran Rick Otey Jerry & JoAnna Young

303-1747 691-6523 347-5677 692-3542 925-3167 266-5239