PSA 6.5

Yes, I regret not asking him now.

After doing the DRE he just washed his hands and said he was going to refer to the Hospital for a scan and a biopsy.

I've had my appointment letter come through today.

Will the first Hospital appointment just be an initial consultation?

Will I have to go back for the actual scan and or biopsy?

PS thank you for your advice

Thanks for the info 

Sounds to me like the template biopsy is the better one in terms of greater accuracy and less complications.

Wonder if I'll be given a choice 

Thanks Chris

I'm glad I'm not the only one who scan reads letters - it was my wife who pointed out to me that the Hospital was a different one to our usual one - so I might have turned up at the wrong Hospital!

I have just read the letter again and there is no mention of any procedures scans or biopsies.

No Bollinge, you should desist from putting your opinion as if it is fact! It is not acceptable, as new posters have no idea that you are also new. In your opinion, template biopsy is the gold standard. But the one stop shop clinic that your American friends advised you against, we were celebrating in the news last week as the way forward. It is not just a matter of cost - it is also about unnecessary general anaesthesia. And it is certainly unhelpful to tell another poster that something is going to be agony when you haven’t even experienced it yourself.

Lazarus, the vast majority report that the biopsy was nowhere near as painful as imagined, and felt somewhat like being flicked with an elastic band.

Edited by member 11 Mar 2018 at 10:25  | Reason: Not specified

Even 10 years ago, the standard biopsy was transperineal, as in my case, in Coventry and Warwickshire, and as Lyn said was like being flicked repeatedly with an elastic band. No big deal. And this post IS based on experience.

AC

No. I said what I recall. Entry was definitely not through the rectum. There was a local anaesthetic, I think.

AC

I had the transperineal template biopsy March 2017, with a spinal block/epidural.

Didn't feel a thing. I was distracting myself chatting with the anaesthetist, wondering when the biopsy was going to start, and they told me they had finished. 

With the sp. block and having my legs parted and placed up in stirrups I was beginning to wonder if they'd misread my notes about what I was in for.

My recent template biopsy was really no big deal, and I am a big baby, averse to pain! Although I do watch when they take blood samples.

I went into theatre around 10.30, chatted to and joked with the anaesthetist about his native Berlin and discussed which cocktails he was administering. Fentanyl was one, the recreational drug that killed The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, when he overdosed and combined it with some other drug.

Woke up around mid-day, with a lovely Filipina nurse almost in bed with me. Back to the day case ward, with an urge to pee where the catheter had been inserted. When I did go to the loo there was the razor blade sensation and pink piss, but not too bad. The registrar came round and said I was OK to leave, but a nurse said my pulse was too high and I had a temperature. I said my pulse is high anyway and the temperature is likely to be a side effect of the anaesthetic. I was advised to sit by an open window.....

I felt fine, so got dressed and discharged myself around 2.30 pm. They gave me Co-codamol painkilling tablets, but I didn’t need them. Slight discomfort when micturating for a day or so, but the rosé soon changed back to Chardonnay. There was extensive bruising to my perineum, of course, as they had taken 42 core samples, and I got Her Loveliness to take a picture. I will spare you the image, but think black and blue. Not uncomfortable though. Pink semen for about three weeks.

So that’s just the rehearsal. The premiere is yet to come. Not sure when.....!

It’s not just my opinion, it’s the opinion of two friends who are far from “newbies”, and the opinion of the poor bloke in the bed opposite me who had a TRUS last August and had to wait five months for a template, and at least one guy on here in the last week or so.

All of whom had a TRUS initially, and then were recalled for a more accurate template biopsy later.

I only speak as I find.

Edited by member 24 Mar 2018 at 10:49  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks Bollinge 

My wife also takes the view that given the lateness of the follow up date that it must mean that it's good news but like you say what with the NHS in crisis and all that who knows?

I've decided just to hang on until the appointment date to find out the results. 

Edited by member 12 Apr 2018 at 09:51  | Reason: Not specified

Ooh look Bollinge, you got it wrong twice in one thread. Perhaps you should stop giving advice until you know more?

Lazarus, that’s a long time to wait for a biopsy - did you ask whether it could be brought forward?

Hi Lyn

Yes that is what I thought to when I opened the envelopes my spirits dropped thinking that oh god I've got wait all that time!

But then I remembered what the Nurse said at my initial Hospital appointment on the 15th March when she explained the two biopsies that they did, (TRUS and Transperineal). When asked what I thought of them I said I preferred to have the Transperineal one and I asked if in the event of my needing a biopsy would I be consulted before hand as to my preference but the Nurse was unsure as to whether I would be consulted or not, (in the event I was not) but she did say that she knew only one of the consultants performed transperineal biopsies and there was a waiting list for them. 

As I said in the event I was NOT consulted as to which type of biopsy I preferred so I am assuming that the decision to put me in for a Transperineal biopsy is for clinical reasons - so I am happy because my understanding based on what I have learned thus far is that a Transperineal biopsy after a MRI scan has two distinct advantages over a TRUS biopsy - more chance of finding the cancer if there is any there and less chance of getting an infection.

I note that on one of the letter the name of the consultant has been changed and when I looked him up on the internet the web page said that he specialises in transperineal biopsies.

No I haven't asked for an earlier appointment because I assumed that I would have been given the earliest appointment possible.

However I have subsequently been advised to ask to be placed on a waiting list for cancellations which I intend to ring up and request on Monday.

Edited by member 14 Apr 2018 at 08:57  | Reason: Not specified

Lazarus- best of luck - I hope your biopsy goes well. With regard to advice on this thread, you’d b3 well advised to heed what Lyn has to say. She really does know what she is talking about.

Louise

Rang and spoke to a nurse today who gave me some information regarding my forthcoming biopsy and results of the MRI scan I had on March 23rd and the blood test I had on the 15th March.

The blood test I had done at the hospital on the 15th March included a PSA test and interestingly enough my PSA score has gone down from 6.5 to 4.5 - although this is still too high as I am only 52.

My MRI scan is marked as 3 and although there is no evidence of a presence of a high grade cancer there is a lesion on the upper right side parameter which is recommended to be investigated further.

Hence why I am having a template transperineal biopsy on the 5th June.

The biopsy won't be a MRI-ultrasound fusion one but will use the MRI results as a guide to where to take the samples from.

They will also take some cores from the rest of the prostate.

I get the results from the biopsy on the following week (12 June)

Thanks very much!

Good or bad I will just be glad when I know the facts - all this not knowing has completely done my head in.

It's just a shame that I still have 7 weeks to wait before I get the results but I was told at my first Hospital consultation on the 15th March that there was a waiting list for transperineal biopsies on account of the fact only one of the consultants does them.

However the medical team decided that the MRI is showing a specific area of my prostate that needs to be targeted for biopsy and they have chosen a template transperineal biopsy as the best method to do this.

I have requested that I am put on a cancellation list so there is always the possibility that I might not have wait that long if I am lucky.

For the past few weeks I have been experiencing an aching pain in my right testicle area - could this be caused by the lesion on my prostate does anyone know? 

Edited by member 26 Apr 2018 at 19:59  | Reason: Not specified