Hello everyone - it's been a while since I last posted or indeed visited as I've been getting on with life especially after retiring at 60 just over a year ago.
I passed the 5th anniversary of my radical prostatectomy back in June this year. For sure, I still can't get it up for more than a few fleeting seconds, but I'm fully continent (unless I've just hiked 18 miles when I might be ever so slightly leaky). My PSA levels (in bio) still appear to bobble along just above the lower limit of quantification, but I put that down to poor control of the lower end of the bioassay rather than to actual PSA that shouldn't be there at all (I worked in bioanalytical method development for a very long time).
Recently I've been flirting with a different club (oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma [OPSCC]) and during diagnosis I had my first ever PET scan. It was the standard radiolabelled glucose job rather than PET-PSMA but nevertheless I asked that they took a good look at my prostate bed and pelvis/ribs whilst they were at it. Everything was clear wrt prostate cancer.
Whilst working my way through various OPSCC forums it struck me that the majority of posts were either from terrified newbies (that would be me) or from people in the midst of really rather nasty treatment, or those living with long-term ill effects of treatment or worse still, incurable disease.
So I thought I'd pop back with a message of hope for the newly diagnosed and newly terrified. There is good reason for optimism. If you have managed to get a diagnosis sufficiently early there is every chance that 5 years from now you will still be right as rain and will have put the whole sorry experience behind you with relatively few long term issues. Hold your head up, don't despair - you are strong enough to get through it.
One part of my story I wouldn't recommend. Having beaten one cancer, try not to cop for another one even if the PET scan helps put PCa worries to bed. Now I've got a whole new set of worries!
Cheers
Upkeep/Ian