To follow on from my last post:
I contacted the oncologists' secretary on 27th March to find out what was going on and she forwarded this reply from my oncologist:
"As per our previous discussions, unfortunately I am reliant for the spacer procedure via my other colleague at GSTT [Guy's and St Thomas'], who is in turn reliant on charity funding for the time being to help schedule the spacer lists, thus I cannot give a specific date yet. I have however had some communication from my colleague Dr *****, who was looking to schedule a list in April and has confirmed that you would be on the next list. I am however not sure if this would now be impacted by the recently announced Junior doctor strikes. As discussed during the 21/03 consultation, Dr ***** did not wish to schedule your case for the list in Feb as they were using a different make of spacer which he was not comfortable inserting for someone on dual blood thinners.
Reassuringly, there was also a recent update of we receiving some official funding for this procedure which we should be able to setup in the coming few months (as a backup).
I would like to reassure you that as long as you continue on the hormone therapy & your PSA remains low, the cancer remains under control and we can wait for these procedures to take place. As you appreciate, it is not a straightforward case and we have been trying to get the spacer inserted for you to help minimise the bleeding risk from radiotherapy in acute as well as late phase. I would like to reassure you that you are not lost in the system and we have been having regular appointments and maintained a waiting list to ensure this."
Things progressed quite quickly in the following weeks:
I had the SpaceOAR procedure and gold leaf fiducials placed around the prostate on 14th April - I did suffer with increased urinary frequency and urgency the week after the SpaceOAR, but that settled down in the following weeks
Planning CT and MRI scans, 28th April
37 fractions of RT - first dose 15th May, last 6th July. 2 Gray per session = 74 Gray total. The RT was directed at the prostate and seminal vesicles
I got through the 37 sessions OK. After chatting to them before the planning scan, the radiographers decided that I would be able to hold onto 220ml of urine fairly comfortably and I mostly didn't have a problem filling my bladder that much and holding on during the RT. On 4 of the 37 sessions, I had to come off the treatment table as the preliminary scan showed too much poo and air in the rectum even after the micro enema, so I had to try to poo a bit more. As the sessions went on, the urine flow rate decreased to a dribble and I had to pee in installments, but that has improved a bit in the 3 weeks post RT
My next consultation with the oncologist is in October. I will have a PSA blood test prior to that.
So it's just a question of monitoring PSA over the following months and years. I have to continue with the dreaded HT (Zodalex) until March 2025. Hopefuly the RT/ HT combo has done the trick (I was given a 70% chance of a cure).