Hi my name on the Macmillan site is Jan52021 so let's stay with that for continuity.
First I thought I would say how my cancer was diagnosed, and provide the technical details of my diagnosis.
For the technical:
PSA level 5.9
Gleason score 3+4 = 7
Grade group 2
T stage T2
N stage N0
Localised
My journey started on 9th December 2020. I had been going to my local surgery for a couple of weeks due to low sodium and potassium levels in my blood. During this time I thought, might as well get this uncomfortable feeling in my rectum sorted while I am going backward and forwards to the surgery, as many other people I just thought old age creeping in. The first thing they did was take a blood sample. With the sodium issue and now this, my arm was becoming a bit of a pincushion. The blood test is what is called a PSA test and my level came back as 5.7. Anything more than five apparently needs further investigation. That meant another visit to the doctors and a couple of fingers up my bum to feel my prostate. The doctor found a small ridge on one side of my prostate gland.
My doctor was very reassuring, saying that it is not necessary cancer and there is no need to rush out and do my will, I was not so positive. The doctor arranged for an MRI which I had on the 22nd Dec 2020. The result of the MRI led to the requirement for a biopsy. Before having the biopsy I went into the Hospital to have a bacterial check of my rectum on 24th Dec 2020.
Up to this point, I was ok, not too bothered about what was going on, so although I suspected I had cancer it was not affecting my daily routine of my thoughts. Still sleeping all right nothing to complain about.
I was offered a biopsy between Christmas and New Year but declined, no news is good news.
I eventually had my biopsy on the 4th Jan 2021, I asked the consultant at the biopsy what he thought it was and he said almost certainly Prostrate cancer, the confirmation results came about a week later. I found the biopsy very uncomfortable, and it took me about six weeks to recover from that feeling.
At this point, I had done a bit of reading on the treatment options and initially, my preference was for Radiation treatment. After further reading, I changed my mind and opted for surgery, which gave me the fallback position of radiation later if I needed it.
I had an appointment with a consultant surgeon on the 2nd Feb 2021, he went through just about everything, mainly explaining what could go wrong. I also had my pre-op. I asked the surgeon about time scales but at the time covid was in full swing and he could not give me even an approximate date for surgery. I came out from the meeting with the consultant a little apprehensive.
12th Feb I received a holistic needs assessment form to fill in online which covers my concerns at this point in time. About this time I received a booklet ‘Coping when someone close to you who has cancer’ and Cornwall Prostrate Support Association, unfortunately, due to covid the support group were not holding meetings.
After the meeting with the consultant, I decided to see what sort of time scales and cost we would be talking about if I went private. I contacted a London based company HCA Healthcare, although I got a price from them of £13835 I found that this did not appear to include Anaesthetist fees, so the price was not complete and would also depend on the consultant I used, they failed to give me any sort of time scale although I emailed them twice concerning this point. The second company was Nuffield Health, I found these people to be far superior to HCA, they gave me a price of £15700 and a time scale of one month dependant on the surgeon.
One of the information leaflets I received had a web address that allows the checking of the surgeon who is going to conduct your surgery. It gives the number of operations he has completed and how many had complications and then compares that information to the national average. This information must be interpreted with care, but it gives an overview.
Early March, I had not heard anything from the hospital for over a month so telephone them, the only thing they would say was we will be in touch when we have a date for your operation. I was not very happy with this response so I telephone my local surgery. The result was that I was contacted by someone from my local Hospital (Not where I was to have the surgery). After a discussion about my care plan and my needs, I received a telephone call the same day saying my operation would be in April.
