Surgery or Radiotherapy? Decision made!

Ah that's great - I had my RT at Christies in Oldham - we had a gated car park for RT patients but I live so close it's 25 minutes walk or a short bus ride!!

You will find the Radiologists to be great and willing to answer questions and although it will be like a chore going it will soon pass.

Keep us posted as to how it's going and I wish you and Mrs AW all the best.

Brian.

Just seen you’ve had good news AW, keep it up , re my brachnytherapy, mine two procedures of hdr, but not any other treatment as I have the dreaded Crohn’s in way of any more , mines at st James Leeds on 9th Feb after January one was postponed because I caught c diff in Huddersfield hospital before Xmas , well I’m having another test for it at mo as was very ill with same symptoms last week and had another 6 hours in Hossy as my gp is very on the ball to make sure my Leeds date doesn’t get postponed again , the waiting is not good , but I’m very hopeful with reading your story regarding the whole process etc , cheers Jonny Mac 

Good to hear, Jonny Mac - hope you now have a trouble free few weeks leading up to 9th Feb. Hopefully then the HDR brachytherapy will knock out your PCa cells!  AW

Hello Jonnymac22 

We are all with you here pal - I know it's been hard for you and I hope it all goes ahead - your positive attitude is half the battle - between us we can get you through this - stay positive!!

Best wishes - Brian.

Update : my 9 Feb procedure is not happening again ! Stil said he won’t risk it till I’m 100% grrr , said mines a three and half hour procedure, didn’t know that ,  going for end of Feb now , so the saga continues lol  

Oh Sh*t : So sorry pal - I think he's got your best interests a heart. He's just making sure you will be right and there will be no problems with the Brachytherapy with your issues. Let's face it he's going to be doing quite a bit of messing about down there!!

Have a half of shandy and press on - the end of February will be here before you know it.

Best wishes - Brian.

First two Done. ️ - going for my third one this morning. Feeling fine this morning and I’m happy that I now know the routine: 10 mins to line me up using lasers, 2 mins to take CT scan (all automated with the scanner rotating round the body), then 5 mins to check all systems go after checking the scans, then 2 mins radiation from the LINAC delivery arm (again, all automated and goes all around the body, twice). Phew! 

Magic that - let's hope there's no side effects and you feel fine throughout the fractions.

All this modern technology - nothing wrong with the three tattoo's and some radiologist throwing you round the sunbed to get you in the correct position.

Well, another week of treatment completed - 5 factions and my latest 3-monthly decapeptyl injection.  So that’s 8 days done and 15 to go with my IMRT.  I’m into the routine now, and although I’m expecting side effects to increase, so far I don’t seem too affected. That said, I’m under NO illusion that things will probably get harder as I progress through IMRT, and for a few weeks beyond.  My main hope is that, because I’ve had brachytherapy, the IMRT dose is lower (46Gy over 23 factions, so 2 Gy per faction).  That, together with the fact that the LINAC machine that is being used on me does a CT scan every time so the radiologists can fine tune the profile of the radiation dose.  I hope my research will serve me well!  Ready to relax for the weekend, then it all starts again on Monday.  By Thursday, I will be half way through!  AW

Hi Alpine Wanderer  Happy Days - I am so pleased it's all going well - I know the hard part is travelling there and back and parking. 

I was always left with the thought during RT - They line you up on the sunbed and then they can't wait to get out, press the radiation alarm and retreat behind a lead lined wall 30 foot away - how can this be good for me??

Anyway - that's just me - I am fine 1 year down the line - Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards and thanks for the update - Brian.