Diagnosis and beyond

The Meeting for the diagnosis went well. A MacMillan nurse was in attendance and followed up immediately with a further session to make sure I had understood and remembered what was said and agreed. She also gave me a number of leaflets etc.. The homework I had done meant that I was familiar with the terms used. The details are :-

PSA 2011:2012:2014  7:10:18 

Left 4+3=7; 3/5: 27% Right 4+4=8; 4/5; 12% 

Volume 61cc T2 ? T3

The recommendation was radiotherapy for 7.5 weeks after 3 Months of LHRH hormone treatment. I was also offered surgery after hormone treatment with the likelihood that I should also need radiotherapy once I had recovered from surgery. The option was not too inviting and about 30 years ago when I last had a general anesthetic I had great difficulty in recovering consciousness. So the decision was easy for me. After all my anxiety and self-education over the preceding week the diagnosis was easy to understand and accept. I had guessed T2 or T3 from the comments following the DRE. The Gleason scores I just accepted. The biopsy had been very well done with 7 of the 10 samples containing cancer cells. 

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My wife accepted the result With resignation and did not wish to get-into the details.

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So that tidies up the three conversations I started during the week before the diagnosis. Now I can turn to the present and the future in this new conversation. Well, almost. I discovered a few days later why I had not been referred to the clinic 2 or 3 years earlier. The PSA values for 2011and 2012 were on the hospital's system but not on the G.P.'s system. That is something for me to follow up. 

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My wife is determined to support the medical treatment by feeding me all that is best to combat prostate cancer and to maximise my health generally. To this end she is giving me a vegetarian diet including a daily glass of liquidized raw vegetables. Her researches have indicated that beetroot, radish, carrots, some sort of seaweed are important elements and lots of spring water. When she can get them all vegetables, pulses and seeds should be organic. Coffee and black tea are out and green tea is in. (There is a conversation somewhere on green tea.)

And so if she has anything to do with it I shall go through my treatments fighting fit. At present I don't find this difficult for since my biopsy I have had a poor appetite. I expect that I shall do very well and suffer little from being deprived of fish, poultry and red meat. I am happy drinking green tea. So things are shaping well as I get through my first week on hormone therapy. 

George

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