Understand your symptoms

Nigel. What you describe were exactly my symptoms. I mentioned the slow pee flow at a Wellman clinic appointment and asked for a PSA. However I was talked out of it by the locum GP. I did nothing for three years but the change to my semen was causing further worry. I am thankful to my wife and a friend who made a two pronged attack to persuade me to get a PSA test. Thankfully no one tried to talk me out of it this time. If I had only insisted on a PSA three years earlier I would have probably avoided a T3b diagnosis with a lymph node met. But what's done is done. No good looking back. 

C

Like others on here, I had no symptoms other than a reduced flow when urinating, which I put down to getting older.

It was only after reading in the paper in 2018 that Michael Parkinson, Billy Connolly and Stephen Fry had all been diagnosed with prostate cancer and were urging men over 50 to get tested that I, at age 60, decided to do so. I initially had a private pin-prick sending the sample off in the post PSA test and when that came back with a recording of 6.26 I contacted my local GP. I was called in and had a DRE (nothing found other than a slightly enlarged prostate) and a "proper" injection in arm blood test. Because that found that my PSA was "only" 3.58 the GP and I decided to take no further action at that time. Roll on 3 years and another private pin-prick test ( PSA 7.54),  I again contacted the GP and after a blood was taken my PSA was found to be 5.32. The GP decided to undertake another PSA test a month later and when that recorded a PSA figure of 5.76 I was then put on the fast track cancer pathway- which, after biopsies, scans and another PSA test ( 6.01 in September 2021) resulted in me having my prostate removed a few days before Christmas 2021.

Without reading that article back in 2018 and deciding to take action, I would probably still be unaware that I had  prostate cancer and  might not have known until it was too late to take curative action.   

Notwithstanding the fact that the PSA test is far from perfect, I think men of 50 and over should be encouraged to have regular PSA testing and I certainly tell all my friends and relatives to do just that.

Ivan

My start point was also a small show of blood in urine. Not much and only one. I probably wouldn't have thought any more about it, but it had happened a couple of years earlier as well, so I was perhaps sensitised to look for it. I was whisked in for a DRE ( inconclusive) and a cystoscopy - also inconclusive although it gave me a UTI. That was significant as it delayed my eventual blood test til  about 6 months after first presentation. It came out at a PSA just short of 18, which was initially seen as a potential recurrence of the UTI, so the first step was a urine test. By the time I  got to a biopsy it was 8 months after first putting my hand up... It's amazing how the 3 week 'test, wait and review results' cycles add up to something a bit chunky!

There is no reason, Nigel, with the numbers you have posted why you should not be optimistic about  getting a good result. My prostate was removed and the histology once it was sliced and diced was upgraded from T2 to T3a, with the Gleason score (3+4=7, with less than 5% of the cancer being grade 4) & the N0 category remaining the same. Just over 1 year on my PSA is undetectable, my flow is as it was when I was a teen and I am able to get hard without taking drugs (Though no semen). Though you do have a lymph node with prostate cancer, I don't consider you are "too far gone for surgery" (Elaine's other half who had a number of nodes affected had his prostate removed). In fact,  there is some evidence to suggest that having the mother ship (The prostate) and the affected nodes removed and, if necessary undergoing RT, has a better outcome over a 10 year period.

Ivan