My initial reaction

The PSA test is pretty simple. If the result come back under 4.0 you are fine. If it is over four (and exactly what is being measured, I have no idea) you need more testing.

PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. When you pass the 4.0 threshold you have another blood test to measure your "Free" PSA. The lower your free PSA is, the more likely it is you have cancer.

When my family doctor called me to tell me my PSA was over four and that he wanted to see me again and send me to a urologist, I sort of panicked.

I immediately jumped on the Internet and was panicked even more. I foolishly joined a list serve where I started asking questions.

"With numbers like yours, there is no doubt that you have cancer," one person said.

Another gave me a list of tests that I should insist that my doctor order.

I sent my doctor a letter (yes, an actual snail mail letter) listing the tests I wanted.

When I went to see him, he explained that the possibility of my unusual PSA test being cancer was very low. Plenty of things could be causing the reading.

The tests I wrote to him about, he said, he had never heard of. He looked them up and said they were pretty old-fashioned and not used anymore.

He calmed me down and I vowed to stay off the Internet when it came to health questions.

Most of the well-known sites, like Web MD, were so generic, that the information was pretty much useless.

The sites that were run by victims or advocates were shrill and scary and often inaccurate.

Here is the funny thing I have learned about cancer: While it is just a suspicion, health-care providers move rather leisurely. I remember waiting a week or two before I could see the urologist and then all he did was order another PSA test and make an appointment for another week later.

Once cancer is diagnosed, however, they move fast and their schedule becomes your schedule.

So, the urologist ordered a PSA test and a free PSA test. The PSA test came back a little higher than the one from my family doctor and the free PSA test came back low.

All tests indicated that I must undergo a needle biopsy.

They tell you it is a needle biopsy, but they don't give you the full name – It's a transrectal needle biopsy.

I am going to let your imaginations play with that for a while and add more to this site later.