Help please....

Hi Kaza72  sorry you have joined our club.  I am sure someone will be on soon with advice but initially it is one hell of a shock.  Just don’t go on Dr Google as you will scare yourselves silly.  We have members who have opted for both routes and are on curative pathways.  As you say, doing nothing isn’t very good but you have time to decide.  Any more stats (PSA, staging TNM) will be useful.  You are at a horrible stage and it will get better.  Please ask away.  David

Hi David2017

Thank you for replying.

Yes, it is one hell of a shock.... In all honesty I have stayed away from Google for that reason.

I'm not sure of the stats, it was all a bit of a blur. In fact, he is dealing with it better than myself.....

They just said his Gleason score of 7 so I am assuming stage 3. They did say medium risk, I do remember that much....

Thank you...

Hello Kaza72  and welcome to the family. As David has said, we have many men and their partners who are Gleason 7 and can tell you their story by clicking on the chair or picture next to their name. Your husband's reaction is common to many at the beginning but if the doctors are recommending this treatment then it is because they think they can cure him and allow you both to get on with life. What you have to do is find out about the different forms of treatment, look at the possible side effects and then decide which ones are important to you. These first few months are the most difficult so I can give you a link to a helpful book which you can download for free which explains what all the letters and numbers mean and what treatments are available to you as there are different types of surgery and radiotherapy as well as hormone therapy.  If you can find out a bit more information like the TNM, initial PSA and whether it is Gleason 3+4 or 4+3 then this can help us to give you more targeted information and point you in the direction of those who have had treatments with a similar diagnosis.

https://issuu.com/magazineproduction/docs/js_prostate_cancer_guide_for_patients_ezine

Please ask as many questions as you like, it is a steep learning curve but also take time to assess all your options and come to terms with the diagnosis.

Hi @Kaza72 

I was diagnosed with stage 2c Gleeson 7 (3+4) with no symptoms back in April this year and had my op on July 5th, I had 6 weeks off work, declared cancer free in September and was fully continent after 12 weeks, my only leftover from all of this is I still suffer from ED at this time.

I was offered the op or hormone therapy with radiotherapy as choices for me to make, each comes with their own set of downsides & upsides. I would suggest that you both read everything you can on the choices you will have or will be given so that you are fully informed and the choice that will be made then won’t be regretted in the future.

For now I would say, read everything you can that you can find on the MacMillan and Prostate Cancer UK websites, and like others alluded to, stay off of Dr Google, that way lies confusion and dark paths.

One last thing to say is that the more positive that you can be, the better everything will look for the future, for me, cancer was a blip & I told everyone, that “I’m not I’ll, I just have cancer”.

You both will likely have questions a long the way, there’ll always be someone on here who can answer it for you. I have my reason for choosing the curative path that I did, if after reading up on your options, and you’re still unsure which way to go, drop me a line on here and I’ll provide you with why I chose what I did, but everyone is different and what I chose for myself, may not be the route for you guys.

Take care and best wishes to you both

John

Hi Kaza

I was Gleeson 6 so obviously similar,  but Gleeson not everything, other important points are PSA now and previous ones, MRI what does it say in terms of sizing,  I presume tumour within gland.

If everything low then active surveillance is worth considering, not sure if that was mentioned.

Onto treatment, I had Radiotherapy which I considered easy to cope with, didn't fancy the major op.

Less likelihood of ED with RT so could be an important point, it isn't always.

Main downside to RT is that surgery near impossible afterwards if cancer returns whereas Radiotherapy after surgery is Def ok but having said that potentially more side effects cos two treatments, obviously not always though.

So do much research,looks like time on your side so no need to rush

All the best

Steve