Prostate cancer, i hope this helps.
As the add on TV says " Prostate cancer " who's got it. Well i have, but fingers crossed i'm cured.
Listening to the radio this morning i heard a well known presenter saying he was slowly getting back into the swing of things regarding work and so on.
He had had his prostate removed.
He said there is a saying which goes
Please don't linger
get the blood test
have the finger.
The blood test refered to is called a PSA, a simple process with the result a couple of days later
and the finger really is nothing, why people make such a big deal about it is beyond me.
My story starts about a year ago, i noticed i was having a small amount of blood in my urine.
First thought was i had a chill on my kidneys or bladder. However it didn't clear up so i went to the docs.
He arranged for me to see a urologist which i duly did and he said ok we will put a camera up through your penis and have a look at your bladder.
Now, i do have monthly blood tests to monitor my warfarin levels and on my next blood test my doc said we might as well do a PSA at the same time.
This came back with a reading of 18, not good, it should be under 6.
My doc said to ring the urologist and tell him, and ask if he can do a prostate biopse at the same time of putting the camera up you know where.
This was done and he said to ring in a fortnight for the result which turned out to be a definite yes for cancer.
At this point i thought, should i tell my kids, they were both going through up heavels at the time, one moving house and the other splitting up her marriage.
I decided not to tell them.
Next he said i've arranged a bone scan for you, it's in a months time.
I'm thinking, a bloody month, it's already been two weeks, what the hells going on. We've all heard the stories of
people being diagnosed and popping off a few weeks later.
Well it turns out that it's not like having the flu where every one is coughing and sneezing, with PC every ones different.
Upshot was the bonescan showed that the cancer was still inside the prostate.
He said if i had been older they wouldn't have done anything except to monitor it, but as i'm young (72 ) i'm worth saving.
He arranged for me to go to the oncology dept at the Royal Adelaide. At this stage they said i should go on hormone therapy. !!!!
Apparently it shrinks your prostate and so shrinks the cancer.
The down side to this is no more erections. Bugga. You think this will be a big deal but then you realise it's better than the alternative and i readily accepted it.
They did an MRI and after, inserted three gold seeds in my prostate, this then enables them to direct the radio therapy beam exactly where they want it.
Treatment started two weeks later.
Eight weeks five days a week, i had Christmas day and boxing day and New Years day off.
I stayed with a friend in the city and and got to come home on three weekends.
The cancer council have units in town for country folk if needed.
The treatment it's self is easy peasy, lie on a bed and don't move till you're told. Takes about 10 minutes if that. 5 different shots. you feel nothing
and the machine just moves round you until it's finished.
It's the after effects that's the problem.
Before the treatment you have to have an empty bowel and a nearly full bladder.
All i wanted to do after was get to the loo as quickly as possible to empty my bladder.
If i went to the shops i had to know where the loos where, cos when you've got to got you really have to go.
Twice i didn't make it but luckily i was home alone both times.
Then there's the diarrhea, they do give you tablets to relieve it and they really do work and i only had it twice in the eight weeks.
with only one accident, again i was home alone which meant i wasn't embarrassed.
Through out the treatment they keep asking you if you have any questions, your minds a blank until you walk out the door then you have lots.
I would like to say at this point that i have nothing but praise for all the staff in the oncology dept at the Royal Adeliade Hospital.
From the doctors down through reception, nurses radiologist to the volunteers who bring round a welcome cup of soup once a week.
There bloods worth bottling.
I found it odd but comforting that in the waiting room every one will talk to you, complete strangers happily telling you whats wrong with them.
Where as in my own docs waiting room it's allways fairly quiet yet you know them all, by sight at least.
I think it's because you're all there fighting the same thing in one form or another. It feels like a form of camaraderie.
At the end of my last treatment i asked the attending doctor at what stage was i at now.
He said they had aimed for a cure, that was why i had eight weeks and that only time would tell.
I asked him do i have to stay on the hormone treatment, he said thats up to your urologist but i think maybe three months will be all.
well three months later i had another PSA, this time the reading was 0.05. YEA, i was as happy as a pig in !!!!
I saw the urologist and he said thats classed as a zero nearly everybody has a small reading. YEA again.
I asked about the hormone treatment, he said oh that up to the hospital, they put you on it they can take you off it.
I said but they told me that would be your decision. he said i'll write to them, ring me in a fortnight.
Result was i have to stay on the hormone therapy for another year and as that old song went, hang down your head Tom Dooley. lol
While i wasn't ecstatic i do readily accept it as again it's in my own best interests.
What did tick me off though was that at this level of care i didn't think any body would be passing the buck, so to speak.
So the purpose of this has been twofold. One, i think it's helping me a bit by talking about it as it's still not a certainty that i'm shot of it and
to say that if you're diagnosed with prostate cancer it's not the end of the world
BUT IT MIGHT BE IF YOU DON"T GET YOURS CHECKED
. Any thing that happens to you is happening to the rest of us, you are not alone.
BTW i did tell my kids when i started treatment, we caught up and went to dinner, they weren't happy but i was only trying to save them worrying.
