Suspect my circumstances might be uncommon, but I'll fire away in case anyone can share advice.
I've lived with prostate cancer for many years. Radiotherapy was the first line of treatment and then when it returned seven years ago I had a salvage prostatectomy, which left me with total urinary incontinence. Now, it's back again - still prostate cancer but now in my bladder neck. Because of the siting of the disease and the damage cause by the radiotherapy (scar tissue etc) the surgeon says he will have to remove both bladder and rectum in order to cut away the cancer. This, he says, would provide the best oncological outcome, though the end result would be two permanant ostomies. I trust his judgement, but he's a surgeon and surgery will usually be their default approach. He says that hormone therapy is an option, but can't predict how long it would be effective for. Five years at the most he suggested pretty dismissively. The thought of a colostomy and a urostomy leaves me pretty depressed, but so to does dying prematurely. So it's a toss up between lifestyle and longevity. As I say, I realise these are probably an uncommon set of circumstances - and nothing like as bad as others on here have had to endure - but if anyone has any experience of/advice around this conundrum I'd welcome it, though I realise it always ends up being a personal decision. TIA