Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2007. Already suffering other illnesses, heart & lungs (COPD). To date, only watch & wait with cancer.
My last blood test (one every 3 months) showed that my PSA level had risen from 5.1 to 9.8..... This is worrying for me, why should it have almost doubled all of a sudden? My GP has sent me through to my local hospital for another consultation (on Friday 13th of all days ha! ha!), but having only recently moved from London to Suffolk, all doctors etc are new to me.
My last consultation in London, had the consultant tell me to loose weight - I have been on steroids for many years now due to Asthma & COPD, suffer with arthritis in my knees, & can't walk more than 25yds without being in difficulties. Exercise is totally out of the question for me; in February this year, I had a heart ablation (they do a procedure like an angiogram & burn away parts of the heart sending electrical signals - or something like that) as my heart rate was 214 at rest....
Due to my other illnesses, I cannot have any form of anaesthetic for an operation, & many proceedures (radio & chemo) are out of the question as I weigh 146kg & the limit for the bed to have the therapy is apparently 136kg.
My last consultant was very good to me - without even looking up from my papers, she said that I had to loose weight, but when I pointed out the reasons that I couldn't, she said "well, put a peg on your nose & go swimming" (I can't even enter a swimming pool due to the smell, it takes my breath away.)
Due to illnesses etc, we had to move from our house to a bungalow - I could no longer cope with the stairs etc very well, hence the move to Suffolk.
I am a retired police officer, & in past years I have held an active life; swimming for my county, rugby, rowing, hammer throwing etc, but now I can't even walk. I am only 53 years old, but have to have my wife shower me & generally look after my every need. Thank God for the electric scooters & motability, without them I couldn't even leave the house.
This is sounding like a ramble - if anybody is reading this I'm sorry...... Not used to such forums & things.
I have had a number of doctors tell my wife & I that my life expectancy was between 2-3 years (that was 2 years ago), & now that my PSA levels have doubled, I've got the fear of Christ in me, but I dare not pass it on to my wife & children, I do my best to carry on as normal - we have obvioulsy spoken about things in general though, & have a very good understanding of oneanother, I simply don't want to burden them with my tales of wo.
I feel so alone with this 'burden', & reading through other people's comments & things on this site, it appears to be a common fault of us sufferers...... I guess that it's quite natural to feel the way I do, but it really goes against the grain. Nothing is being done other than 3 monthly blood tests (for the above reasons all of which I understand), so I feel as though (as I saw Hercule Poirot say in one of his episodes) 'I'm a corpse waiting to die' ------- I'm making this sound awful, I just feel that there ought to be something that I can do, but there isn't. Life is slipping by & I am getting more & more out of salts.
I'd better call it to a halt here, sorry for the winging, hope you & yours are fairing better.
