HELLO

Hello Rocket4e316f 

A warm welcome to the club you never wanted to join - but here you are.

Personal opinion, you don't need a DRE (just what information will that give you apart from telling you there is an issue with your Prostate?)  - you need to get booked in for a biopsy, MRI and bone scan. I think you and I know the results with a PSA of 179 are going to be positive for Prostate Cancer.

Yes a start on Hormone therapy ASAP would put the cancer to sleep and stop any further possible spread but I fear that's up to Urology at the hospital to prescribe, so there will be some delay although you should be seen within 2 weeks under the Cancer Pathway. My Urologist started me off on Hormone Therapy before the MDT because of my high initial PSA and I an thankful to him to this day.

(If you check out my journey by clicking on my name or avatar you will see I started off with a PSA of 182).

Feel free to ask any questions, we are a decent bunch and you will get honest answers.

Best wishes - Brian.

Thanks very much Brian. I also thought the same. I just want to move it along. Maybe a DRE will help focus the GP a bit. I will make these points. I had just read your excellent profile also. Good luck with it all. Phillipp

Hello Phillipp (Rocket4e316f) 

Good luck tomorrow - I hope you get some answers. Do keep us posted.

i would advise you to start a list of contacts you meet on your journey, name, what they do, telephone number and e-mail address, you never know when you will need them in the future.

As we are all different we have different questions we wish to ask our teams so here's a link to a hand list you may wish to use at some point:

Questions-to-ask-your-healthcare-team

Best wishes - Brian.

Welcome, you are with friends.

The main thing on this first flight is to listen, to note down, and have anything you don’t understand explained.

There is little we know about you yet. but when we do we will all have something to add.

So ask what comes into your head. This plan you are being asked to get on with is the first thing. Tests and scans.

 Many thanks Brian. That’s a great help. I’ll keep you posted.

Hello , sorry to see you here but welcome! I am just on to say hello and echo what has already been said, feel free to have a nosey at my profile. I did read on the prostate cancer website that with high psa readings its is hopeful that the DRE will be scrapped, unnecessary really and prevents many men from accessing support, however, i think many GPs are still asked to complete before referral to Urology can be made....good luck and keep us updated️

Thank you so much. That makes sense. I’ll go armed with some very useful info thanks to you all. I will report back in due course.

Hi Rocket4e316f  

I just want to to add something to the excellent advice above, that may interfere slightly, but it's a question worth asking at your next meeting if possible, Like Millibob says with a PSA 179 you are very likely to have Prostate cancer at some level, so you are not jumping the gun, but being realistic.  My husband had Hormone therapy very early on because we felt it was important to put the cancer to sleep instantly, which it was and it was absolutely fantastic at stopping it in its tracks. But you must have your scans done preferably before. -CT scans, MRI, bone scans and PET scan if you can get one or within a short time of taking it. The reason is that HT is so effective at shrinking back the cancer, it could interfere with any tiny micro metastatic action (if there was any) and possibly stop it being visible. When first getting a high PSA back, it is natural to be hyper organised and want everything done instantly, but you do have time to consider what is best for you and to ask these questions in your next meeting. 

I don't think our decision to have HT early was wrong because the waiting times were long at the early stage of diagnosis, but I recommend that you ask how long it will be till you have your scans and could HT interfere in anyway. You will probably need a biopsy as well. I agree the DRE seems a little unnecessary? but may as well go through the process.

Another thing that maybe handy to speed things up... If you are going down the NHS route and you find you are waiting for the scans, phone up each department at the hospital and say you will take any cancellation and will be with them within- (however long it will take you) If you have private insurance, this is the time to contact them.

Let us know how you get on, these first few weeks are fraught, but there's plenty of people here that understand what you are going through and are here to support you.

Best wishes

Lorraine

Thank you so much, Lorraine. Those are excellent points, and I'm most grateful for them. I would never have thought to ask these but I can see how valuable they are, and I will certainly be asking. I will take a notebook with me. all the best, Phillipp

Hello Rocket, welcome! My husband was subjected to several DREs over the years as his PSA was consistently but slowly rising. Each and every time he was told there was no problem. He had no symptoms. Eventually , in 2022 a registrar suggested a MRI scan. He was diagnosed as T3 N0M0. 

A DRE is not a conclusive diagnostic procedure but sometimes something ‘suspicious’ can be detected and sometimes not!

He was not started  on HT until the full diagnosis and staging was available and he had stated his intention to go down the HT/RT route rather than surgery.