Thinking back to day of diagnosis.

Hello Tom, I have the same as you. I went to the GP a year before diagnosis with a list of everything that was wrong with me. He said we are all getting old and best not to interfere with anything.

I had private health insurance then and when my annual MOT was due, the high PSA was discovered and that was that, like you, straight to stage 4. Possibly I could have been at an earlier stage had the GP got his finger out and up my bum but that was that.

Nothing wrong with thinking and worrying but it won't help you sleep. You are still really recently diagnosed and that news had to be churned around in your stomach until some peace descends on you. Give it a bit more time yet.

Good luck.

Hi Tom, Believe it or not, my diagnosis was in 2013 but I had actually been to my GP surgery a couple of years before that when I saw a red mark on my shin that was getting bigger. My own GP was on holiday and the GP I saw didn't know me at all. Even when I told her I was worried because my brother had died of Malignant Melanoma at the age of 43, she told me I was letting my imagination run away with me and just to put some Vaseline on it!
This is the short version (honest) about what happened!

Over a year later I was at the nurse getting blood taken because I had been feeling unwell for some time. I asked her to have a look at my leg and she fetched my 'regular' GP who referred me to Dermatology who said it was most likely a Basil Cell Carcinoma but because it was on my shin it would be difficult to remove. He made another appointment for six months later. However as he had been taken ill at that time & was in hospital himself, I was referred to a Plastic Surgeon because I said I was still concerned. He arranged to remove it and I got a phone call from him to say it was MM and I had to go back ASAP to have a Wide Excision with a bigger margin. Three weeks later I had my first Oncology appointment and was told I had MM stage 4!
At night I used to wonder if that first GP or Dermatologist had taken me seriously, would I have been stage 1,2 or 3 but that was in the early days after diagnosis and I know now, it doesn't help to say What IF!! Norberry is right when he says it is early days for you yet but never give up hope. They are developing new treatments all the time for a varied number of cancers. I hope you manage to get one! Good luck!

I don't sleep well at night due to pain but in place of worrying, I do online jigsaws on my iPad and read books on my Kindle, it makes for a better night!

Hi Tim, I was diagnosed in September 20 with stage 4 kidney cancer. I had been going to doc for a pain in my buttocks shooting down my leg. The docs thought it was cyatica but once I was sent to rapid diagnostic clinic and had ct scan the diagnosis was made, the cancer had spread to my bones. I had no kidney cancer symptoms at all, so can’t blame anyone. But do wish I started at stage 1 etc.

thanks for listening 

Rose xx

I was diagnosed 5 years after I asked the ENT doctor tor about a lump in my neck he said it was a neuroma and he did not order a CT scan. 

5 years later I asked my GP about the lump which was now bigger and I was referred to ENT at Southmead where they did an ultrasound and told me it definitely wasn’t cancer but I asked to have it removed anyway.

they removed it 2 weeks later and found it was adenocystic carcinoma then I had 2 more operations including a neck dissection and 6 weeks of radiotherapy. I am still here 12 years later but have lung, liver and base of skull metastases 

Hi Tom

I have exactly the same, I was diagnosed August this year with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to my bones (spinal cord compression) and my thoughts are did I miss something that could have warned me earlier? I think all the time where were the constant trips to the toilet I was supposed to get which would have given a hint of PC but no straight to stage IV.

Keith

Hi Tom. In my case I had had a lump on my scalp for as long as I could remember.  Started to irritate me a 2 or 3 years before diagnosis. I kept catching it on my brush and couldn’t stop fiddling with it which made it worse.  

Doctor had it removed and found it was benign and warned it might grow back and need removing again.  As it was benign I pretty much ignored it when it did grow back and as it behaved much as it did previously.  When I did eventually go back to the doctor I also had a small lump in the back of my neck. Turned out the lump on my scalp had turned cancerous and spread to my neck nodes and lungs.  This was near on 5 years ago now so Ive learned to accept it over the course of time but there is always the thought of what if I had acted sooner.  if Only I had followed up on the regrowing lump before I did, then it probably would  have been caught at a much earlier stage and my life would be very different right now.  I was so naive and feel so stupid for not twigging that something benign could change into something more sinister.  I could and should have done something about it before and the worst thing is that ultimately it’s my kids that wilL pay for my mistake when they lose their mum at an early age. 

We could all write a book on 'what if', but we all know its a waste of our time. I'm saying this and I am a serial offender! Let's ban that expression from our minds or try to cut down on it.

The worse part of my diagnosis has been my GP at the time...he did get the CT results and said>>>> it's Lung Cancer , it doesn't look good, i hope you got someone to talk to. That's it, he opened the door and throw me out. I always will remember that, and was thinking a person with low self esteem would have jumped in front of a train or so...what a bastard, i wrote a complaint but never did hear back!

How can a doctor be so insensitive? What happened to his caring manner? I'd have pushed for an apology from either him or the local authority.

Tvman xx

Pet1968 I can relate to your story as it is very similar to mine, although mine was a phone call. GP rang me and asked if I was driving? I said no, he then said I have your X-ray results here and you have lung cancer in both lungs, it doesn’t look good. What He didn’t know was I was in town on my own, just getting back into my car to drive home. A complaint was put in about that GP and I moved surgeries, I never wanted to see that man again.