First consultant appointment

Hi Anthony

Sorry to hear your results but as you say you are on the road, unfortunately this is the bad time as you have all the tests and wait for results and follow-ups, it seems to get so much better when the decisions and treatment(if needed) starts, luckily mine turned out to be enlarged not cancerous but it still comes as a shock

Take care and you know where we all are,

Tony

Thank you Kasvin.

Your Welcome- by the way my name is Tony if you were thinking i referred to you !

Thanks again Tony.

Hello Anthony (Anthony5) 

Well - you are now on your way and it's natural to worry so to keep you busy here are a few ideas for you:

* If you are in England, make sure that you have the NHS app on your smart 'phone and request full access to your medical records - you can then keep an eye on whats going on.

* Keep a record of all contacts you make within the NHS - names, telephone numbers and if possible e-mail addresses, you just never know when you might need them.

* You can always contact booking and scheduling at your hospital once you get your appointments and let them know you are available to take any cancellations at short notice.(you would be amazed at the number of cancellations made!!).

* You could add your journey details to your profile - this not only helps us to help you as we know where you are with your treatment, it serves as a reminder to you of what's gone on. To do this on your home page, click on the chair - top right, then "profile" and then "edit". Once you have written something don't forget to save it. (you can read my profile by clicking on my name or avatar).

I hope this helps.

Best wishes - Brian.

Thank so much Brian. Some really good advice there. I’m in Northern Ireland so I’m not sure about the nhs app but I’ll check it out. Also checking for cancellations is not something I thought about, so thanks for that. Yeah, the journey begins, similar to many thousands in the same position today! Once again, thank you Brian, I appreciate your help.

Hi Anthony5 - you may be a candidate for brachytherapy boost )if your own hospital doesn’t do it, you can be referred to one that does). Check out my bio for detailed information.  My feeling is that you will most likely have prostate cancer confirmed by MRI and biopsy, so you need to get through these diagnostic stages as quickly as possible. However, it may be something else driving the symptoms, so please don’t take this amateur advice as gospel. If you are confirmed PCa , then BBoost should include full pelvic radiation too in my opinion.  However, even without the brachytherapy, normal radiation via EBRT would also most likely include full pelvis.  These are only my thoughts, but worth looking at this before consultations start so that you can prepare some questions.  I would hope and expect you to still be a candidate for curable pathway, so push hard to speed up diagnosis/ use cancellations etc.   AW

Thank you Alpine Wanderer for your good advice. This is all new to me and so I appreciate your (and everyone else’s) advice and knowledge.

You’ll get through this.  The most difficult phase is diagnosis- once on a pathway, just let it run its course. I’m writing this as I hike (on a coastal trail in the Algarve). AW