I had an appointment yesterday with the urology department at the hospital where they performed my prostate cancer surgery. They were generally pleased with my slow but steady recovery from the surgery itself. However, some of the news they shared with me was not entirely as good as I had hoped for.
They successfully removed the prostate and the lymph nodes as planned, but they had found cancerous cells in one of the lymph nodes and because of this they are referring me back to the oncology department at the referring hospital to investigate further treatment options. Treatment could involve hormone therapy or radiotherapy, or a combination of both. The term used was "adjuvant therapy" which I understand just means "extra" treatment after the primary therapy which was the prostatectomy.
Once again, I was told that I was young (!) and otherwise in good health, and that therefore the chances of an eventual curative outcome remained high, it would just be taking longer than originally planned.
My main feeling is one of disappointment, as I had hoped that I wouldn't need further treatment, but I will just have to deal with whatever comes next. I am now waiting for the oncology appointment.
As I mainly work from home I was already planning to start back on a part-time basis from next week, and I imagine that the part-time arrangement may need to go on for a while around whatever new treatment I have.