Worry about meeting the consultant on Monday

That made me laugh since in the last couple of days we have had posts from 2 men who are having or have had penile implants, a man who hasn't had an erection since 2019, a man who can't urinate asking what to do if he goes into retention, and a couple of men dealing with recurrence. I guess we all just see what we want to see. 

 Desperate wife, have you managed to get any clarity yet on why the surgeon said the RP would not be full nerve sparing? The answer to that will also indicate the likelihood of the main side effects that impact on QoL after the other treatments as well. Assuming that it has turned out to be a misunderstanding and the surgeon had not said the op would be non nerve sparing, I would have thought the brachy option is a no-brainer. 

The bical wouldn't usually be 2 x 3 months - stopping bical and then starting it again can feed the cancer so it will probably be a continuous 6 months of daily bical tablets with RT (or brachy / RT) in month 4. John had 6 months of bical - he didn't like it but managed to continue working full time, going to the gym 5 nights a week and playing rugby. He had hot flushes and grew some moobs (our NHS CCG doesn't allow tamoxifen or RT to prevent this) - the flushes have turned out to be permanent but he has learned to manage them. The moobs were also permanent but he is a big rugby type and already had pecs so it is hard to tell which is muscle and which is breast material! Moobs tend to be more obvious on slim men or men who don't do gym work. If he is getting tamoxifen from the start, the risk of moobs is very much reduced although tamoxifen has its own side effects :-(  

Edited by member 08 Apr 2022 at 22:01  | Reason: Not specified

I was on bicalutimide for six months prior to RT and a year after it as a primary therapy. It really was not "hell"; as I've commented previously, I found the whole treatment process to be entirely tolerable. 

There are never any guarantees with any treatment that cancer won't return, but the success rates with both RP and RT are very good. 

My previous offer to have a chat with your husband on the phone about what RT/HT treatment is actually like still stands if it would be helpful to him.

Best wishes,

Chris

And, Lyn ,with your glass half empty mindset you only see the negatives rather than the positives. There have been many examples of men on here that have undergone surgery and have not experienced major issues just as there are men who have not experienced issues when undergoing other forms of treatment. A balanced view goes a long way you know!

Ivan

You are entitled to your opinion, Hermit, but reading a lot and putting it into acceptable practice is not the same thing. Yes, some of Lyn's  responses are fine but her approach has driven at least one man from this forum.

Where there is time to consider and this seems one of them, it is worth considering all options. It is stated that at present patient favours Nanoknife but it is not clear whether he is suitable for this comparatively innovative form of treatment. Just in case he is not found suitable, it would be sensible to have a second choice from those he could have. My understanding is that Brachytherapy with seeds is generally the most successful overall form of RT and more so where augmented by some IMRT External Beam. So I would chose between this and RP.
Here you can see how over 100,000 men have responded to treatment in various studies with the results formed into an elipse You just need to start by entering your risk group. Worth fully exploring the site :- https://www.prostatecancerfree.org/compare-prostate-cancer-treatments/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0umSBhDrARIsAH7FCodZMqS7xzo0yXDW4-qioVlLFaEZRpbvg3BVaniDHCzqIqZOpREbJ8gaAiXTEALw_wcB

It should be remembered that the worst cases for what may generally be a more successful treatment are sometime bettered by the best cases of what is generally a less successful group.

Edited by member 16 Apr 2022 at 11:38  | Reason: to highlight link