brachytherapy or EBRT experience.

What makes it even more difficult to choose between treatments is the unpredictably of how a particular patient will be affected by a treatment. Many men do experience at least some adverse effects from HT. As regards affecting a man wanting to continue working, perhaps the most common and worse of these is premature fatigue, maybe also producing aching joints. Hot flushes (and the sore nipples I had) can be got round and in some cases can be treated to mitigate. Loss of libido should not affect work. Then to this uncertainty, there is further uncertainty over what further tiredness and further side effects various forms of RT will add. It must be remembered that RT also kills good cells so the body is trying to repair itself all along over a long period and this can compound debilitating effects of HT. I found that with the addition of EBRT I was just a little more tired and needed to pass water more frequently. For a while I was needing to get up as much as 8 times a night but this did gradually reduce until a couple of months post RT I was back to my pretreatment twice a night. I did force myself to walk a few miles everyday, albeit at a slower than normal gait. I don't think I could have done manual work though, despite being reasonably fit (I had played short tennis twice a week hitherto even for a reduced time throughout HT). However, I was 71 at the time, and feel I would have coped even better had I been 51. But this is just my experience and for others it could be quite different.

Edited by member 20 Dec 2014 at 20:51  | Reason: Not specified

Consultants should evaluate the individual  and in not all cases is HT given prior to, during and after RT. Having said that, Oncologists are also on a learning curve and for example where typically  at one time HT was given for 3 months prior to RT, studies showed that there was a worthwhile benefit in increasing the HT period to 6 months and it now seems to be more the case that HT is continued from 1 to 3 years after RT.  You could ask the consultant why he felt that HT was not needed if the RT route was adopted.

sjtb, please stop fretting, you need your strength and your wits about you for the next few weeks, and with a farming lifestyle and three young children you surely need as much sleep as you can get. Worrying will get you nowhere.

I'm sure that if your husband had needed hormones then it would have been told to him.
Not every man requires them.
My husband too had a normal size prostate and a slow growing cancer, he wasn't offered them either before his seed implants.
Already his PSA is dropping. We've done our bit, including his consultant and now we have to continue to live our lives normally, assuming the seeds will do the trick.

You both have to have confidence in your choice of treatment and in the consultant. If either of you is uneasy to the point that you suspect you have made a wrong choice, or you want more time, then tell them you want a review.
They wont refuse, but I suspect that even if your other half is secretly worried about the lack of hormone treatment, his adamant refusal to take them means he will NOT make enquires because he won't want to know the answer.

I am sure in my own mind that any consultant advising his particular treatment is confident that this particular patient is a good candidate for a success. Every success reflects well on the consultant and improves his "rating".
If the case was more difficult or the outcome less likely to be a success, I think he would advise another route rather than have a failure. If your consultant is confident then so should you be.

That's how I think anyway.

Whatever treatment choice we make there is no guarantee WE got it right. All we can do is research and then trust our final choice based on that.

Your husband has years ahead of him. Maybe at some stage in the future the treatment he has now will come back as a different cancer (ie bowel) but you can't live the rest of his life thinking that's what his future holds. We cannot predict the future. If we could we'd all live a different life to the one we have now.

Was your husband given a designated nurse to contact in the case of queries, or do you have the consultant's secretary number.
Perhaps to put your mind as rest you could quietly ring them and put your fears to them. Failing that, contact this website nurses and ask their opinion.
Lots of members have talked to them and found them very reassuring.

Anyway, try and relax. The children will pick up on your fretting and then they will worry.

Best Wishes Sandra

Hello, thanks for that. No hormones were not mentioned at all for Brachy. The oncologist said they would be needed for radiotherapy to shrink the prostate, but after MRI they found the prostate doesn't need shrinking. The Brachy chap he said hormones were not needed for either treatment, my husband did not tell the consultant he doesn't want to take them, he was never given a choice. (He told me he wouldn't take them having seen a few friends that have had them)

We only have a few days left until he goes in. I am still a little concerned at the pain he is getting deep inside, the consultant didn't seem interested. My husband keeps telling me he knows it has spread all round the area as it hurts all the time. The consultant assured us it can't spread that quickly (MRI was 6 months ago) but it all causes worry. I do feel if it were me I would want to find out what is causing the pain before having the seeds put in. I don't know how much the consultant can see when he does Brachy. He said it won't have spread with a psa of 4.9. But a friends step father had a psa of 6 point something (she wasn't sure of the point) and it was in lymph nodes. But I feel all this is beyond my control now. 

Hello, he is having permanent seed brachy. I think that is what you mean? I know there is one where the seeds don't stay in. I know they said prostate cancer doesn't spread like that, but just seems strange that it hurts all the time. He originally went to the gp with deep tummy pains. Not a lot has been done about it. Once the psa was found to be raised they concentrated on that. But I would want to know what is causing the pains, the deep pains were there before they found cancer. But the pain in and behind the testicle is new. I just hope they don't put the seeds in and find it is worse when they do the MRI 6 weeks later, as I do believe they can't do much else once brachy has been done.

Hello Elajai. Yes bowels is why he went to see GP. He has an upset tummy all the time (not done a formed bowel movement for a few years) He had never told me before as we don't discuss our bowel movements, I was shocked when he told me, I know he only has to drink strong coffee or spicy food  and it comes out the other end quickly. Also he has a deep ache a long way inside. They did general blood tests, allergy tests (he wanted the bowel cancer test that you put samples on every other day, the GP wanted it for him too, but the test was refused as he is under 60) Nothing else was found apart from psa. As I said earlier no symptoms promoted psa test, turned out he had had about 7 psa tests done since his late 40's. He didn't know about them. We saw them on his notes starting at 1.7 and gradually increasing (to 4.9 at last one)

I just can't help worrying what is causing him pain, if it is the prostate have they missed it spreading, if it is bowels then the brachy is going to make it much worse. I have not read anywhere about early prostate cancer hurting, so can't help thinking that they have missed something or it is getting bigger, a lot can change in 6 months (since MRI). He is groaning a lot at night too because his lower back hurts so much. But as someone else said on here, the mind plays tricks too, now he knows it is there he may be imagining more pain. 

Seems that since psa was found to be raised all bowel problems have been forgotten about as far as Dr's are concerned. I did ask whether his bowels will become worse after treatment, we were told they may do, but that Brachy was the mildest treatment option.

I don't think he is worried about the cancer really, he is terrified of the treatment and hospital stay, he has only been in hospital once when he was a small child, he is never ill, he rarely even gets a cold, on the rare occasion he does get a cold, which I would say is one cold every 2 or 3 years or so, he will get a chest infection and needs an inhaler, I am sure this is due to all the rubbish like straw dust and chemicals from spray that he inhales that cause the bad chest, so thankfully he doesn't get them often. But he has never not been able to work on the farm, so it doesn't get bad enough to prevent work. So the panic is setting in at the thought of not being here a night (him, not me) he is convinced the cows will get out or some major event as he isn't here. We don't take holidays incase the cows escape! I have joked that I will send him a text in hospital that the cows have escaped!

When he first had the psa results he said to me "what if they tell me I only have 6 months, how will I get the cows and farm sold and sorted in 6 months" Never mind me or our 3 young children!

I will let everyone know how he gets on next week.

Yes, I was thinking of you Si as I typed on another thread - Gil's maybe 😳

Edited by member 02 Jan 2015 at 11:25  | Reason: Not specified

Hi , I am sorry if i have added to your concerns it is that i get fed up of hearing these sweeping statements from Oncos.

In America now they no longer offer bone scans to people with a PSA below 10 as it is highly unlikely that there will be spread, thank god i am not American.

In my time i have had some brilliant tradesmen work in my house but i also have had two that was bloody awful, i am afraid that is the case in all professions,

Have a look on the website of your local private hospital, there will be great profiles of every Oncologist they use including the cancers that they are specialists in, all of them will work in the NHS. Sometimes it is worth seeing them privately for a consultation and then ask them to take you on in the NHS.

A friend of mine had virtually given up, his Onco was pretty hopeless, he saw my Onco privately and he took him on through the NHS he is now one happy bunny.

I hope everything works out for you

Si

Hi thank you Lynn for your positive input, as has been said no case fits all.  I feel for the OP as we are in the same boat however my husband has a PSA of 0.4 and a gleason of 3+4 = 7, we have been offered Brachy and will meet with the consultant on Wed 7th, we are confused as his lump was pick up from a biopsy last year (3+3 =6) second biopsy was carried out in November producing the higher score.  We are unsure as to what to do as the only way to find out if the treatment has work is by measuring the PSA which in his case is not even measurable.  He also has aching in his groin area...........  What do you do? Do you leave it alone or take the treatment? Do you remove it? Will it continue to grow if you do nothing?  Try to relax and look at it from outside, take the positives not the negatives (says she who is worried like nobody else) I do not know what ot do other then be here and support the love of my life..........Lucky none of us know how long we have on the earth and worrying will only steal your happy times together, I might be gone before him who knows.  I look at it this way.

1, My OH is 57 (still a young man)

2, We have options on the table

3, It is still in the early stages

and 4, We woke up this morning and have spent the day together :)

I really hope you are OK, please try not to worry, change what you can and leave the rest in the hands of the experts xx