Appointments

Hi

Your doctor can do a PSA test for you, if your worried, I have mine done by my doctor now, even with my condition they have extended my appointments to every six months, which just happens to be the 20th this month.

joe

Hi,

My Macmillan Nurse Specialist at Sunderland Royal has said several times that she will help to chase things along if I ever feel I am not getting appointments etc through in good time.... although if there is a specific problem in your health authority area with a backlog not sure there will be a lot they could do.

Regarding PSA tests my Dr's surgery wanted a letter/email from my consultant before they would do one, even though my consultant had advised me verbally that I should get one done... when I rang the nurse Specialist she advised that the Urology Dept do "walk in" PSA tests with no appointment needed so rather than bother the consultant again I popped in and had it done and got the results the next day (0.901 yey :-) ), so if you're having trouble again I would try the same route as they may be able to help.

Kevin

Hi Joe do you just get your PSA test done every 6 months as well.

Hi Kevin his doctor has no problem doing the PSA test. It would be just reassuring if we could talk to the oncologist about certain things.

You can always ask the specialist prostate cancer nurses on Prostate Cancer UK. the number is 0800 074 8383 - a free phone call they are there Mon- Fri 9am to 6pm and Wednesdays 9am to 8pm.  I got a lot of information and explanations from them during my journey.  I don't think I ever managed to contact and speak to my "key worker" I think she e mailed me some info once as my GP hadn't received a letter so she scanned it and e mailed to me.  A lot of the time these poor people are so overworked they barely have time to breathe.  I have to say I got a lot of help from my urologist's secretary whose father had prostate cancer at the time so she had a lot of info to give.  Give the prostate cancer nurses a ring tonight they are there until 8pm.  There is also the ask a specialist part of this site too and a wealth of experience from all the people on here so always drop a question to us you never know one of us might have the answser or be able to steer you in the right direction.

Take care

Des

Hellodolly

The importance of the PSA test every six months depends on what treatment your husband has had.  It sounds as if he may have had a prostatectomy, but if he sees an oncologist it sounds like he had radiotherapy.

Following my prostatectomy 7 1/2 years ago I was supposed to have a PSA every six months and an appointment.  I've never seen an oncologist, I always saw a urologist.

I quite often found that it was more than 6 months between appointments.  In the end I just had the PSA done every 6 months at my GP surgery.  I shouldn't worry too much about the appointment, if you understand the significance of the PSA result and it's OK, the actual appointment isn't that important.  

There is a move now to "Risk stratified follow up" after cancer treatments and for some people this means they don't have appointments at all.

If your husband has some issues that he wants information about, there are lots of sources of information and lots of people he can discuss things with other than an oncologist.

Others on here have mentioned some of these.

In addition, since this is a Macmillan community, Macmillan also have an "ask an expert" feature and lots of information and support about specific topics.

I was discharged from.outpatients in 2016, but I still have six monthly PSA tests.  I just make an appointment at my GP surgery and I get the result online the next day.