A bitter sweet day.
One year ago today at eight o clock in the morning I sat in a theatre ante room waiting to have my prostate removed. There was then a problem with the air scrubbers and a chance the operation was going to be postponed, if I had come away at that point would I have gone back, not sure ?
The air scrubber problem got fixed and I was the on the anaesthetist’s table asking if anyone had done a runner this close to the operation, one thing that went through my mind was the waste of every ones time, effort and money if I were to run off. Ten minutes later I was asleep and the next stage of the journey had begun.
Post DX I think it is fair to say I was guided towards Da Vinci. I have a mind of my own and investigated Da Vinci at my local hospital, open surgery with a Daily Mail top ten surgeon (I took an instant dislike to him), I looked at supposedly side effect free (DM words) low dose painting “no such thing as no side effects” the consultant said and RT (bowel incontinence was mentioned and mum had suffered with that). Being a 21st century gadget man the robot was my favourite choice and my surgeon filled me with confidence.
My job involves being in the office some days and anywhere in the UK other days. Based on the information I was given, with Da Vinci I could be back at work within two weeks, open surgery four weeks, low dose painting twenty 250 mile round trips over four weeks or seven weeks of weekday visits to the radiotherapy centre. Da Vinci had to be the choice.
How did it work out ? Not quite to plan. Four weeks off work post op, one night in A&E, a reduced urine flow and a bladder neck stricture, one cystoscopy, two days off for a dilatation and another catheter. Another consultation, another two days off for another dilatation and another catheter complete with problems. Another consultation, another cystoscopy and the possibility of another operation. Six months of intermittent self-dilatation. A walk in the park compared to many of you on here.
Last week I had my fifth 0.03ng/ml undetectable PSA reading and was told “most” men who have consistent and low PSA for a year have a good chance of remission hence why the PSA test stretches to six monthly tests. I am sure there are exceptions to this and it would be useful to know.
I asked the question if my PSA is 0.03 ng/ml and all the PSA could be gathered up together how big would it be? I had a bit of a wobble when the lab result read 0.03 ug and not ng, until I noticed that it was per Litre not ml.
After having a few aches and pains could I have Mets with such a low PSA ? It would be unusual with the grade of cancer I had. There are apparently some aggressive cancers that do not cause elevated PSA levels.
One year on, life is getting back to normal, I am still dry, there are stirrings down below and so far the urine flow is still hovering around the 10 ml/s and of course the PSA is low.
So not a simple journey but I am in a good place and a lot better off than many on here and better off than a mate who yesterday took his own life.
Thanks to those who have helped me directly and thanks to all who have posted and shared their experiences with all of us. I hope my contributions may have been some help to others.
Thanks Chris