Hi all,
First post after a recent brush with prostate cancer. at 60 years old. I believe that I'm one of the lucky ones. With no sysmptoms I received a positive diagnosis after a routine health check detected traces of blood in urine. The diagnosis was early and the biopsy indicated that it had progressed to just beyond the criteria where radical treatment is recommended. A couple of bewildering months later, I no longer have a prostate gland, my PSA is zero, there is no indication of spread and the prognosis is good. I really do believe that I've dodged a bullet and I'm immensely grateful to the various bits of the NHS that made this possible.
The thing is (and I'm only suspecting this now with hindsight), I'm seriously wondering whether I might actually have had some tell-tale symptoms before the unexpected diagnosis. In the year before that fateful health check I started to have panic attacks and periods of fairly extreme anxiety. Whilst I have suffered from the occasional anxiety-filled times previously in my life, this was much more severe. And as for the panic attacks, before I realised what they were there were times when I wondered whether I was dying from something like a heart attack. What I experience over the last year or so was a whole new realm of nastiness and completely out of character for me.
Several internet searches have failed to find anything significant regarding a link between undiagnosed prostate cancer and panic attacks and/or anxiety. Of course once a prostate cancer diagnosis has been made then the likelihood of both of these things is obviously very much increased but this is not the point of what I'm trying to say. What I think I discovered however is that there does however appear to be a likely link between anxiety and/or panic attacks and pancreatic cancer, and possibly a link with some other glandular cancers such as adrenal gland cancer and thyroid gland cancer. I do stress however that the available information in this regard is pretty sketchy.
What I'm wondering is whether any other prostate cancer sufferers have experienced similar symptoms (crucially before diagnosis and before any suspicion of cancer). Perhaps there is useful set of symptoms here which might serve as an early indication of possible prostate cancer. I'd be interested to hear of anybody else with a similar tale to tell, even if you haven't realised it yet.
Best wishes to all.
