New to this

If your psa was 10 a couple of years ago that was way too high then should have been 5.Now two years later it has almost doubled.This means cancer cells are growing fast so i would not think it is slow growing.There are very aggressive cancers

Find a good urologist get all the information you can.if you are fit and the cancer is contained you may be able to have the operation.My advice is face, it accept it and do all you can to be easy on yourself.it is rough for a while.I have had treatment and im back to normal.Everybodys journey is different.Good luck

Thank you all very much, George

it it is good to hear that you have at last obtained a degree of relief from the acute anxiety which you have been experiencing this past week and which has been,  not a little distressing to observe.

Stubborn resistance is the name of the game George !

The strength and fortitude to endure what you wil have to go through to various degrees  ( like all of us,  in a similar position )  will have to come from within yourself. Comfortingly you have your Faith and as you just now re-discovered,  the therapeutic benefits of getting out of doors and in communication with Nature and the wider world,  as opposed to being stuck behind a screen and a keyboard.

if I may George,   a word also about your G P.   For the overwhelming majority of Practitioners medicine is a vocation and their desire to both heal and comfort is paramount.  The speed with which she organized tests,  scans and appointments for you,  is a clear marker of good care.  My take on why she sounded upset is because she knows that medically there is now little that she,  within her Specialty,   can personally do for you and not because you are ' doomed '.  Which you definitely are not !  ( I have come across this same genteel empathy twice so far during the course of my own treatment ).

Perhaps you will also allow me to make an observation about Medical Forums in general which may be helpful to you.   By its nature,  the medium allows for anonymity and has no way of knowing about the veracity of statements being made by,  ostensibly,  patients and or relatives/ friends thereof.   Where there is a lack of clinical detail or a convoluted and difficult to follow treatment pattern it is often difficult to see the benefit of the Post.  

The lofty objectives of the site(s) can be and perceivably are being compromised,  by certain individuals who for whatever reasons,  visit a large number of sites and join various discussion groups over a wide range of topics.  patient.info ( PCouk). has an inbuilt and accessible 'personal activity' file for each Member from which I note that Mrs O for example,  has as @ 3/8/14,  visited  PCouk in general,  3,949 times and Specific Forums 2,955 times.  Her interest has ranged avidly through an incredible number of topics,   from all manner of systemic diseases,  to various forms of abuse,  to Torsion of the Testes and to where we come across her,  in Prostate Cancer.  

Peter06554 a Prostate Cancer sufferer on the other hand,  has visited sites 501 times and Specific Forums 191 times.  My statistics are since March '14, visited 27 times and looked at 20 discussion sites.  My medical statistics are :  Gleason 7 (4+3), T2b and PSA 10,  TURP  Feb '14 and 42 Radiotherapy sessions, with review on 2/10. 

Good luck with your appointment(s) this week.  Whatever the results it may help you to cope George to bear in mind,  that there will always be countless thousands in a worse position than yourself.  I don't know if you have had your wife with you on previous medical discussions but if she is able to be there,  both for you and for herself, it will be of benefit in the long run.   Dudley.

As you are hearing impaired, of which remind your Consultant,  it would be a good idea to have him/her write down your results on a sheet to be given to you.  Additionally for me,  my Urolgist drew my prostate egg- shaped,  thicker end being up against my bladder;  he then drew a line through it lengthways,  giving R & L; then he drew two equal-spaced lines through the prostate crossways.  So now my prostate is divided into 6 parts.  Then he wrote as follows:  on the RHS up against the bladder and in the first section 68% ; in the next section R ( the middle ) 22% ; and on the L first section 24%.  I then had a clear and easily understandable picture of the extent of my tumour which because of it also being in a retrograde position, is inoperable. 

I then had a mini-TURP and BNI to facilitate voiding during and post Radiotherapy,  which treatment I otherwise could not have had.  Only a small/ medium amount of tumour was removed during the operative procedures.

Due to changes in the shape of the gland discerned by imaging,   both Consultants ( Uro and Onco ) were quite certain that cancer is microscopically outside the capsule.

and so I was given 42 sessions of Radiotherapy.  28 to a broader area incorporating the seminal vesicles and 14 at a higher dose and more focused upon the tumour.

i travelled pretty well through this and experienced only 7 out of the possible 45 side effects.  Three remain with me and even over time these may not resolve and could,  I was advised,  even get worse.  So be it.  I am still here,  I may have achieved remission and I can only live one day at a time anyway.

As cancer cells are already outside of the capsule they hit the area with everything they had, and which I could have RT-wise and I was told,   I cannot have anymore RT except maybe for one or two doses which could be aimed at a subsequent metastatic tumour to relieve pain. 

But come what may I was comforted in that I was well informed by the various medical staff caring for me.  And care is the right word.  They were terrific.

i can only hope that you will be similarly cared for.

dudley

Please try to relax if you possibly can and to not worry so overtly.  Try not to over-think things at this early stage.  Give yourself a break  ! 

As James 87879 said ' do all you can to be easy on yourself '.  So I think that rules out self flagellation !  Also don't forget,  someone might want to re-examine you and you wouldn't  want to have to do some awkward  explaining.

Presumably you are now off the Ciprofloxacyn  and so the side-effects should be on the wane anyway. 

If I remember correctly,  you will find out the results of your biopsy and scan(s) this week?  

Knowing where you stand will,  no matter what the diagnosis/prognosis,  be a release of tension and anxiety,  at least.   Also you will then have a treatment plan and can marshal your energies into maximising its therapeutic effects.

On the other hand however,   if you do not obtain any relief from the acute mental anguish you seem to have been experiencing,  you seriously need to seek professional help.

You might also like to consider whether entering daily into lengthy P C email correspondence is at this stage,  advisable or helpful to you overall ;  and whist you are unfailingly polite it would not be rude to leave well meaning contributions,   including this one,  unanswered.

If good will can make it so, then you are going to be alright George.  As Shakespeare said ' tere's nothin so bad, but that thinking makes it so

kind regards

Dudley

Become dull ?...  Don't say that !  The Director of my Theatre Company has already drawn up a short-list of roles for you !

Best Wishes

Dudley

I have had my first diagnosis so this conversation is at an end. I continue mildly anxious but content and happy. Thank you all very much for your support through what has been a most uncomfortable week..

George