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PSA 7.3 - referred to urologist

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 09:39

:) I actually read that printed off report about 20 times and checked it was actually me. I still can't help thinking though that I am clear....for now; shan't be able to bugger off for a while - don't want that PSA follow-up. 

H

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 10:04
Great news Haig. Try to live each day at a time. You’re cancer free so time to celebrate.

I’ve just had my “last” PROSTAP 3 jab having had surgery, salvage radiotherapy and hormone therapy....

Ido4

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 10:16

Humbled, as always. I wish you nothing but peace and tranquility, with a dose of frivolity, for '19.

H

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 11:09
Just goes to show how silly it is to assume "Oh, oh, I'm going to die!" when you get a mildly raised PSA result. Good news, now stop imagining the worst and get on with life. It's too precious to waste in pointless anxiety.

Chris

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 11:21

Hi Chris, yes, looks like I made a real fool of myself on here. 

H

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 12:33
If you have made a fool of yourself, we have all enjoyed it, and all the more now with your tremendous result.

Stick around if you want. I’m here and I haven’t got cancer either...............😉

Cheers, John.

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 12:50

If others are not offended by my presence, I'd very much like to be part of your community. At times, it was the only thing I clung to.

H

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 16:04

I am not offended by your presence. Keep going.

Best wishes,

Ian

Ido4

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 16:31

Thank you Ian.

Haig

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 17:08

John, PM'd you but your inbox is full. Could you shed a message to allow mine in? It'll only be for this time. 

H

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 17:58
H.

You stay on here so I have someone to whinge to when I fell s**t from any side effects.

Bob

User
Posted 03 Jan 2019 at 18:10

Happy to oblige. Anyway, I am not considering my result as being all clear, so I am likely to pipe up and get people screaming at me for a little while yet.

H

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 19:10

Haig

I would suggest you are as "all clear" as anyone can be.

If you have concerns, agree a schedule of PSA tests with your GP and move on with your life.

Have a search on https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/ for a counsellor near you, possibly one that has a skill in cancer related counselling (find one in the refine search) and go chat to one when you need to. Go chat to one soon and keep them in your back pocket for when test time comes around if you take that path.

To quote the gentleman from "The Life of Brian" - "You lucky, lucky b*stard!"

PP

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 19:45

Hi PP. Top man, as per usual and the advice is good. I know I am a lucky b'tard right now and it is insulting to others on here for me to start bleating on about my interpretation of how "all clear" am I etc. I get all that and I literally cannot believe the patience people on here have for me. If I had Pca at this point and was hearing someone like me banging on incessantly like an educated baby, then they would seriously have p****d me off way back; some have probably reached that conclusion, but others persist in trying to help me. I would blame no-one for thinking that this whacko has had enough of our air-time and needs to bugger off.

The cancer nurse phoned me today to tell me what I already knew from the results, although she also knew that I knew via urologist (who rang me a couple of days ago or whenever it was). I kept her on the phone longer than she had anticipated (as you can imagine), quizzing her like some maniac about what level my next PSA would need to be not to have to go through Biopsy 2 etc. & suggesting to her that I might not go through with the follow-up anyway. She was so sweet and again, here am I, having as good a result as I could have had basically at this juncture, wasting her time when she has to tell men from their first biopsy that they have Pca and then talk to them about treatment plans. I continued though, asking why any inflammation might have subsided in 3 months and that the PSA was just some vague test that everyone knows is seriously flawed. In the end, she has enough and said it was "my choice" and nobody was going to force a needle into me. So, I agreed to see the Uro in 3 months but kept the option of just talking to him and not necessarily having the PSA.

She too, like so many others talked of me needing counselling, but I cannot see a counsellor telling me anything that will reduce my pathetic anxiety and have me waltz into the 3 month follow-up with a smile on my face urging them to take as many PSAs as they bloody want. I know the score, I don't need anyone to "keep me sweet" for next 3 months.

I don't know, many will just begin to (if they haven't already) see me as insane, but I think I am able to get through these next 3 months and make a decision thereafter. Weirdly, I was better mentally for a while and believe it or not I am better now. I just don't sound like it!

I wish that this whole PSA / Biopsy thing could be more conclusive, but it ain't like that. It seems like you are never able to be told that "all clear" means "all clear". Then it's TRUS rather than TEMPLATE and therefore less accurate, RP or AS or HT, Free PSA, PIN, atypia etc. the anomalies go on and on. 

Don't know if you have had the patience to read this far, but I'm not mad or deranged, honest, I'm just a big baby who cannot face up to any of this very well - that's all.

I am not being disingenuous when I say this, but I wish I could have the heart and soul of all others on here, in the meantime I'll go fetch my dummy and hop back into my pram.

Cheers Pete,

Edited by moderator 04 Jan 2019 at 20:06  | Reason: Not specified

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 20:03

Are your family ok with this state of affairs or are you driving them round the bend,? I do feel for them.

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 20:13

Hi Peggles,

I tend to save my real manic rants for you guys, I'm afraid. As you know, I did perk up (long chat with son - now returned to uni + chemically induced) after hitting the low point following the MRI result and Biopsy, but I am conscious of the fact that I need to hide my fears from my dear wife - she has been subjected to too much already. She is like most on here, strong and telling me that it is a curable/treatable cancer (this was before my 'all clear') & now "what more do you want?" after the result was phoned through. She says that I should not be feeling sorry for myself when kids have leukaemia, or soldiers lose their young lives in warfare, or others have more serious cancers. I mean what can I say? Not much, so I don't and I pretend to act as though I am coping. The problem is she is beginning to believe that I am better and now won't give me my medication! Sort of shot myself in the foot there.

Cheers Peggles,

h

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 20:22

...oh, and my dog seems to be coping okay with me, although he is beginning to look p****d off by my numerous "fag stops" on our walks through the woods; I promised myself this would be my last pack, so he should be getting more uninterrupted strolls soon (9 left in pack).

H

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 21:52
Oh, for Heaven’s sake, Haig, I don’t mean to be rude, but this is getting quite frankly ridiculous. You’ve been given the all-clear. What more do you want? You do not have cancer, so stop wasting your life worrying about a non-existent problem and get on with living. Do you see those of us who, unlike you, actually have cancer, moaning about it? You don’t, do you? We get on with the twin goals of getting treated and enjoying life.

Let me tell you, my friend: being diagnosed with cancer (two different sorts of cancer in my case) makes you realise, with a clarity that nothing else can, just how precious life is. Far too precious to sit around complaining about stuff you have no control over.

So for God’s sake stop bloody stressing about something that you don’t have, count yourself fortunate that, unlike us, you don’t have it, and starting living your life again.

Chris

User
Posted 04 Jan 2019 at 22:14

Chris, you are not being rude at all. You are being anything but & I know I am being ridiculous. I thought you'd given up speaking to me, and I quite frankly wouldn't blame anyone, particularly you and others who have tried so hard to help, for deciding to ignore me. However, the fact remains that if I didn't have cancer there would be no need to have a follow-up test. It would be a simple case of au revoir & merci mate. 

I am bright enough to know though that I have gone too far on this forum and my posts are now viewed as nothing short of risible. I shall leave everyone alone from here on in, because I have eventually begun to annoy myself for the way I am on here.

Thank you Chris for being someone who has put up with me. 

H

User
Posted 05 Jan 2019 at 05:44
I've been following this thread from the beginning, hoping it might be some help as I start my radiation on Monday. It hasn't helped but it is compulsive reading! I've had emergency bowel cancer surgery, a large mesh repaired hernia, wound infections, cellulitus, gall bladder out and now a prostate cancer diagnosis, (3+4=7) , hence the radiation for 20 sessions. All in 5 years. I have felt very anxious and fed up at times, I have seen two councellors but I'm hoping the PC is the final problem. All I can write is that I would have loved to be told that my test results were all clear, but many of them were not. So, best wishes Haig. I hope you can soon begin to enjoy life and maybe encourage people on this site who are less fortunate than you.
 
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