Prostate cancer

lazerblue said:
just got back from 2 weeks holiday tonight to find an appointment for the christie tomorrow afternoon to biscuss diagnosis and treatment, i was told i would be going to stepping hill for any treatment, don't know what's changed
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Best of luck tomorrow.

smevchenko said:
I had a prostate exam about 4 years ago, no concerns apparently.

Might head back to the GP soon....

Find myself needing the toilet frequently, sometimes within minutes of going.
Seem to struggle emptying my bladder, poor flow etc
Generally need at least two trips to the toilet overnight

All possibly related to older age (only 42 though), was told previously just an enlarged prostate.

Reason enough to get checked out again?
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Definitely. If you’ve any doubts, get it checked out.
 
smevchenko said:
I had a prostate exam about 4 years ago, no concerns apparently.

Might head back to the GP soon....

Find myself needing the toilet frequently, sometimes within minutes of going.
Seem to struggle emptying my bladder, poor flow etc
Generally need at least two trips to the toilet overnight

All possibly related to older age (only 42 though), was told previously just an enlarged prostate.

Reason enough to get checked out again?
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Yes. That’s what I was like for years and should have done it sooner.

Anyway after the cancellation the previous week I got a call yesterday telling me the equipment at NMGH was broken so I now had to go over to MRI where I have just sat/lay through arguably the most undignified and uncomfortable 15 minutes of my life. Wasn’t too painful and glad that it’s over.

Hopefully the biopsy results come back ok.

Good luck to all going through this.
 
my meeting at the Christie yesterday was very positive, he talked me through the two types of radiotherapy and all the possible side effects, and also went through the results of my biopsy he said my gleason score of 3+4 was very close to being 3+3 which is as low as it gets. We spoke for about 30min and in the end he advised me to go on active surveillance rather than have radiotherapy at this moment in time, got a meeting with the surgical team on the 16th and if they say the same i'll go for that, if i do opt for that i can change my mind at any time and if any changes do occur during the monitoring they'll call me back in to go through it and give futher advice
 
lazerblue said:
my meeting at the Christie yesterday was very positive, he talked me through the two types of radiotherapy and all the possible side effects, and also went through the results of my biopsy he said my gleason score of 3+4 was very close to being 3+3 which is as low as it gets. We spoke for about 30min and in the end he advised me to go on active surveillance rather than have radiotherapy at this moment in time, got a meeting with the surgical team on the 16th and if they say the same i'll go for that, if i do opt for that i can change my mind at any time and if any changes do occur during the monitoring they'll call me back in to go through it and give futher advice
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That's good news. Do you mind me asking how old you are?
 
lazerblue said:
my meeting at the Christie yesterday was very positive, he talked me through the two types of radiotherapy and all the possible side effects, and also went through the results of my biopsy he said my gleason score of 3+4 was very close to being 3+3 which is as low as it gets. We spoke for about 30min and in the end he advised me to go on active surveillance rather than have radiotherapy at this moment in time, got a meeting with the surgical team on the 16th and if they say the same i'll go for that, if i do opt for that i can change my mind at any time and if any changes do occur during the monitoring they'll call me back in to go through it and give futher advice
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I was in much the same position a couple of years ago. Both the radiologist and the surgeon suggested that I should seriously consider active surveillance, and, touch wood, so far that seems to be working for me. The surgeon suggested that it could well be 15 years before anything serious happened by which time I would have been ninety. My wife also asked him “If this was your father what would you recommend?” , and he replied active surveillance. A friend was in a similar position to me but his psa had not come down quite as much as mine and he suffers from diabetes. So he chose radiotherapy on the basis that as he got older he would be less likely to tolerate any treatment. He is still with us and in good spirit.
 
It's a tough choice to make, I keep going through the pros and cons of having radiotherapy and when I think I've made my mind up I change it again, it's doing me crust in, I thought last night that people always say oh he's lucky they caught it early, but what's the point if you waste the golden opportunity to kill it before it grows, then you think is it really necessary to have treatment if you're never gonna need it and the side effects that come with it
 
lazerblue said:
It's a tough choice to make, I keep going through the pros and cons of having radiotherapy and when I think I've made my mind up I change it again, it's doing me crust in, I thought last night that people always say oh he's lucky they caught it early, but what's the point if you waste the golden opportunity to kill it before it grows, then you think is it really necessary to have treatment if you're never gonna need it and the side effects that come with it
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Yes, it is difficult balance. Another thing the surgeon said was that some folk don’t like the idea of knowing that they have a cancer inside them even though it isn’t particularly active at the moment. I spoke to a friend who, as far as he knows doesn’t have prostate cancer and he said he couldn’t cope with, knowing and not doing something to get rid of it. OK, after every check I wonder a little about what my options might be if things have developed but generally I take the view that until they tell me otherwise things are under control. If I were.constantly stressed worrying about the what if’s then perhaps I would chooseiu some treatment.
 
i thought 100% that i would be able to just put it out of my mind and carry on, i'm not really a worrier on the whole, i usually just forget and move on, i think i need to stop reading the same stuff over and over
 
lazerblue said:
i thought 100% that i would be able to just put it out of my mind and carry on, i'm not really a worrier on the whole, i usually just forget and move on, i think i need to stop reading the same stuff over and over
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Very difficult indeed. You just have to a make your decision and stick with it. Don’t revisit it unless and until facts/advice changes. You have to keep reminding yourself you are in a great position in the circumstances with a good prognosis. Best of luck blue, I’m sure you’ll make the right call.
 
Minor update for me. Had my first blood tests since starting hormone therapy and taking the Abiraterone. PSA has gone down from 23 at diagnosis to 0.12. No surprise but it’s nice to have confirmation that the treatment is doing its stuff (as if all the hot flushes weren’t already telling me this!)
 
Marklr said:
I think it's ok.... touch wood and all that. I can't be arsed with more appointments. That's my social life right now...meeting people in waiting rooms. haha.
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I have been using the nhs a lot over the past couple of months as well, i want a period of calm now, lol
 
Following my scan last week they have called me in for a biopsy tomorrow. I appreciate all the quick responses but the speed of it all does play on my mind. I know I just have to go through all the stages until I reach some point of firm diagnosis.
My thoughts go out to everyone on this board wherever you are on your pathway. Stick to it chaps.
 
chedlee said:
Following my scan last week they have called me in for a biopsy tomorrow. I appreciate all the quick responses but the speed of it all does play on my mind. I know I just have to go through all the stages until I reach some point of firm diagnosis.
My thoughts go out to everyone on this board wherever you are on your pathway. Stick to it chaps.
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Good luck with this. One way or another, speedy responses are what you need.
 
chedlee said:
Following my scan last week they have called me in for a biopsy tomorrow. I appreciate all the quick responses but the speed of it all does play on my mind. I know I just have to go through all the stages until I reach some point of firm diagnosis.
My thoughts go out to everyone on this board wherever you are on your pathway. Stick to it chaps.
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The urgent referral system means you get tests really quickly , the system is working well, good luck
 
just had my appointment with the surgeon and he also advised active surveillance so ive dicided to go with all the advice, got a psa test evry three months and a scan in twelve months unless there's a change in psa, in which case a scan will be done earlier, can change my mind at any time if i want, just need to try and put it out of my mind now and crack on
 
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