Is this standard procedure?

To be honest, I’m not sure there is such a thing as standard procedure. I had to chase up my MRI result after 2 or 3 weeks and when I tracked down my urologist on the phone, he asked if he’d already given me my MRI result, which he hadn’t. I suspect it depends on the approach of the consultant and I would try not to read too much into it. I wish you and your husband well, and hope that you have good news when it comes. It’s tempting to over interpret in the intervals - I know I did/do - but I am fairly sure it’s just different practices in a hectic system rather than anything more than that.

Many thanks for your reply.At least they seem to be on the ball time wise. Four weeks from referral to MRI to face to face appointment scheduled seems reasonable. 

It’s different in every case due to your postcode and the current loading on cancer waiting rooms. Yours is not out of bounds but you need to an eye on times and dates and appointments excetera for your own good if things slide.

Good luck

I had a phone call about 7 days after my MRI to tell me the results and inform me a biopsy was required, this was scheduled about 10 days later, I didn’t have a face to face consultation until the results of the biopsy 

Thanks, I think it probably depends on the process as the individual hospital.  We’ll know more next week. I’ll be back. 

My journey was a little different to yours. I was told my MRI results over the phone, which was NOT a pleasant experience which, as I was driving at the time, was a less than wonderful moment.

However, I ended up with the same Gleason score as you.

I went down the hormone therapy and then radiotherapy route, which has proven fairly easy to adapt to. My lifestyle has had minimal adverse change.

There was something I noticed. There is a time span of around 62 days to start of treatment as a target by the government for the NHS. I was inside that by a day.

After the slightly bumpy start, each subsequent stage was within the time limits, if only by a short margin..

Overall, I think the timing is likely to be working out for you.

Hi Porthleven , I agree with Rocket4e316f that there isn’t a standard and certainly if the MRI was on 1/3 I really doubt the results are out yet.  I am down the road in Winchester and they are taking much longer to come through.  I recently had a CT scan and it took 4 weeks!  Let’s hope you get the results on 10th and you can relax a little. Please come back with any questions.

Thank you, I will.

Hi Porthleven,

looking at your husband's detailed history I can offer one or two comments on what you have said. I will not try and offer suggested treatment routes because everyone reacts differently to a particular treatment. Just my experiences.

I was investigated/diagnosed by Salisbury District Hospital. I cannot fault them in any way, took 61 days from referral to start of treatment. Salisbury does not have radio therapy equipment for treatment (if you go that way). I asked to go to  hospital X, rather than Salisbury's usual hospital, for my RT -  for geographic reasons.  BIG  mistake (no names). This hospital refused to treat me - I found the reasons given to be very patronising and (because of my experience in very similar, non medical, fields) very unconvincing. They just referred me back to Salisbury - very unhelpful !

Salisbury then referred me to Southampton General...........what a difference !! Brilliant hospital, brilliant staff and much more modern equipment/treatment than hospital X - and lots of it. The "problems" identified by the previous hospital vanished, I was told "no problem". Look up "SGRT" if you do go for RT, it claims to deliver more accurate treatment and is certainly MUCH less hassle for the patient than many other RT methods. I had no noticeable side effects from my RT. 20 sessions in 4 weeks. 

During my HT I had one or two minor problems, I rang SDH and left a message, my specialist nurse always rang me back. On one occasion my GP was being a bit "awkward", I rang her, she wrote a letter (immediately) telling my GP to do what I wanted !!  On another occasion, I rang her..........and was surprised to get a call back from the oncologist ! 

Cannot speak highly enough of these two hospitals !

Thank you very much for your comments. Duly noted. We are in East Wiltshire about 50 minutes from Salisbury, and quite a drive from Southampton, but you want treatment at the best place and if we have to go down the RT route we will deal with inconvenience of the travel. We have a car and both drive.  It’s good to hear from someone who has had a positive experience of the hospitals my husband is likely to be treated at. It’s very early days but good to get our ducks in a row as they say. I’ll be back to the forum when we know a bit more.