New to this, here for my husband

Hi Dawn, 

Sorry to see you and your husband have got to go through the journey of prostate cancer, I was diagnosed in 2017 low risk Gleason 6, grade 1 T2a confined.

I went on active surveillance for 3years no treatment, apart from 3 biopsies, 3 mri, 1 bone scan, I was fine with 2 of the biopsies, but the last one I had an infection in hospital overnight then it cleared up.

The decision which treatment to have RT or Surgery is something I I though about and researched for 3 years.

I decided to go for surgery, albeit RT gives the same success rate you need to read all the information for both which is available from the site, they will post all the information out to you.

Given your husband is a builder self employed? you may think surgery would take longer to deal with, this is not necessarily correct, before RT you have hormone therapy and this goes on after for a further 3 months, and RT you attend the hospital 5 days a week for 4 weeks this is the minimum time some are longer.

Surgery in one day out the next, yes a catheter for 7to 10days, no drugs apart from paracetamol for a few days.

I had surgery the 25th November 2020 everything went fine took it easy for a month, plenty of walking, in the new year started light exercise weights, by end of February fully up to speed and riding my bike again and lifting weights prior to op, I am 68years old fit retired but I can now do everything before I had surgery gardening digging no problem.

We are all different I have had a great recovery I was fit before that helps of course, good luck to both of you which ever you choose, if you go for RT surgery is not really possible if required in the future, but RT can be a salvage treatment if ever required after surgery, take care.

Daily

I'm taking it permanently in a small dose (one tablet every other day), because the radiation made my prostate swell up a bit. It isn't essential for me - I can manage without it - but it definitely makes things easier! It's the only permanent "side-effect" of my treatment, two years after finishing RT. Everything else has long since sorted itself out.

Best wishes,

Chris

Edited by member 07 Apr 2021 at 23:54  | Reason: Not specified

Hard graft and leakage associated with lifting may be a problem initially if he has an RP.

Any catheter issues after RP are usually short lived but none of the radical treatment s are risk free in the catheter dept.

Rather than doing something because you know someone who did X or Y you need to pick the best treatment for his stage, that offers the most tolerable side effect profile for your personal circumstances.

Dawn,

Hope things start to improve.

In the end I chose the RP route and so far I feel its been the right decision for me. Click on my profile if yoy would like to know more

Best of luck

Hi Dawn, I am afraid I only drop into this forum about once a week so have only just picked up your thread. You are going through a tough time, but most of us here have also been through different – but ultimately similar – tough times, so we hope we can provide support.

If pain continues, that is horrible. In my case the whole thing started with a UTI (though to be fair, I did have flow problems I had largely ignored earlier). After two different GP antibiotic prescriptions that gave temporary respite then a worse recurrence, I ended up with a hospital urologist who gave me something really strong which worked, plus tamsulosin for flow which worked brilliantly. It also put me on the work-up conveyor belt which eventually told me I had Gleason 7 (3+4) just like your husband.

The hospital was good at outlining options, which apparently have very similar outcomes (we are in East Yorkshire, so I guess a little bit south of you). In the end I went for surgery, my age meant the most worrying side effect of radiotherapy (increased chance of cancer 20 years down the line) was a possible issue. It sounds as if your husband is similar, there is no reason not to expect him to live into his eighties following treatment. (A third option, brachyotherapy – a different form of radiation – sounded rather good but apparently my prostate had already got too large for that). And it isn't clear that radiotherapy would resolve the poor flow issue whereas surgery would completely remove the constriction.

But surgery isn't a picnic either! Protatectomy is a major operation even if it is done through a few small incisions using a robotic probe. If that is the way your husband goes, you can expect him to be pretty washed out for a few weeks. And needing a catheter, which you already know about, doesn't help. Even after that it takes months to get back to full physical fitness. And you need to know that most patients will suffer, to some degree or another, subsequent incontinence and erectile dysfunction. I won't go into that since there are multiple threads here, but you have to anticipate effects. Incontinence in particular, if it turns out to continue beyond the initial recovery, will be made worse by physical work such as lifting which is an inevitable feature of your husband's job. (Though to be fair many patients recover OK, and for me though I leak a bit wearing one pad a day, rarely more, inside my underpants doesn't stop me enjoying life).

Good luck to both of you. Any questions just ask, there are lots of helpful folk here.

Dawn,

Good luck with whatever treatment plan you both decide. Its a stressful time but I think gets easier once you make a decision. I was diagnosed in 2017 and didn't make a decision until 2020!!

I went the RP route and really glad I did and that I didn't delay further. Surgery for me was March 23rd 2020. Apart from the inevitable dry orgasms and a scar (I Had open surgery) things are more or less back to where things were pre-op...but without the stress of treatment looming.

Best wishes