Hi Tombeeman, yes you are probably best to start a new conversation if you would like more replies and advice. My other half was told to just do active surveillance, but psa was 3.7 in the June and by November was 4.9 so we decided on treatment. As he has a lot of bowel problems (upset tummy all the time) he was told external beam wasn't a good idea as it effects the bowels, also as he works as a farmer with quite long days, going every day (4 hour round trip) would have been really hard to fit round work, so we ruled EBRT out. The consultant told him if he had his prostate removed he would be impotent and would need to take time off from work, so he said that he couldn't take time off and definitely didn't want to be impotent, so he would not consider surgery. That just left Brachy. He arranged part time cover for 3 days and had it done.
Nearly 5 weeks on, he has worked from day 4 and is ok, as I am sure you have read the only real problems are opening his bowels quite a lot (as I said this was a problem before) and he has burning when he pees and some days he is going every 10 mins to half hour. He is on Tamulosin which is meant to help. It is getting him down as he had no bladder problems before, also he is experiencing a lot of pain in his prostate, but bearable and he doesn't notice it so much when he works, it is when resting. We are at the time when symptoms are at the worst, seeing the consultant in just over a week, so hoping he can help and perhaps things might settle.
We have 3 friends that have had brachy and after the first week of soreness they had no pain or symptoms of any sort. That is worrying for him, but I suppose it effects some people more, 2 of them are retired and the other has a sitting down job, my other half has quite a physical job and can't rest, so perhaps that doesn't help.
If the brachy works then I think it will be worth it in the end. It could have been a lot worse after all.
Until I looked on here I couldn't understand why a man would want to have prostate removed, but having read that some just want the cancer gone, I think the statistics on it returning (1 in 3 men) are similar whatever treatment, but if the prostate is removed and it returns in the same place then there are more options for treatment. Whereas if you have had brachy then the maximum dose of radiotherapy has already been given. Not all surgeons will remove the prostate if the seeds are in from brachy, so there are less options for treatment if it returns. That is why some have it removed.
I did lots of reading beforehand, though obviously not my choice in the end. The other half seems to think if he didn't have 3 young boys he may have let nature take it's course rather than intervene. Not a good idea in my opinion!