Some advise please just diagnosed

What makes you think that you will have a long period of incontinence? Has the surgery team indicated if this likely because of the position of the tumour. Has anyone mentioned if the operation will be nerve sparring. If not these are the sorts of conversations you should be having. By-the-way your score is on the low end of the scale, certainly in a better place than most and it looks like you have been caught early. Long term incontinence is probably close to the top of most mens list of chief concerns so you are not alone.

Hi Rob

I’m also 56 and was also T2 3+4 , diagnosed in March 

like you spent a lot of time looking at treatment options literally driving myself mad with not knowing what to do 

I found that looking at some historic posts in the localised section on here helped me especially in relation to prostatectomy and reading peoples first hand experiences , I must add that when first diagnosed the prostatectomy option was the one I instantly ruled out , it filled me with dread but after more investigations it then became my preferred option as due to another ongoing condition ration therapy, SABR was ruled out

all I would advise is get as much information as possible and get more than one opinion if you can , a private appointment normally costs between £2-300 but can be so beneficial , I also spoke to a few people on here who were very helpful, if you do decide on the surgery route then ensure it is a-high volume surgeon , ask them if it can be nerve sparing , it is also my understanding that they will be able to give you an idea of how confident they are on the continence side of things I believe partly by your urethra tube length , I was told 99% certain I would be ok within months , no real promises on ED though

as you ask about peoples own experience I can tell you mine , the fear of the op was much worse than the op itself , after coming round I didn’t feel any real pain and was having soup and ice cream within a few hours , next day I was walking around the ward with no problems , the only frustrations I had over the next few weeks were the catheter which I struggled with more than most 

I had that removed 12 days after surgery and was dry immediately and have stayed that way , I am now also confident on the ED front but won’t go into detail :)  my surgery was just over 4 weeks ago and I have to keep reminding myself to take it easy as I feel and have felt fine for a while , I do though suppose the real truth will be when I have had my first PSA test which is in about 5 weeks , please don’t take this post as a guarantee that everyone gets results like this so quickly as clearly they don’t and I do feel very lucky but I do think that most of the success stories don’t get heard as much on here as allot of those people are out enjoying themselves and are not on here 

I do though give my surgeon credit for my good start as I think it would have been a different story if I had gone with the first surgeon I saw as I got more of an impression that he wasn’t overly concerned  about side effects and I felt I would be more of a number on a conveyor belt with him ( he told me he couldn’t offer full nerve sparing where as 2 other surgeons both agreed that full nerve sparing was possible and it was achieved 

any questions or queries mate shout out

all the best

Nick

It's definitely quite a choice, fortunately some of the clinicians give you a gentle nudge in what they think is the right direction. Surgery was where I was pushed because of my age. As it was explained to me, secondary treatment options are more palatable should I need them later. From a personal point of view I wanted to get back to normal as soon as possible, surgery gave me that route. It's a gamble since nothing is guaranteed of course buts it's an informed one.