The visit went well and I have a four page print out of Pathology and Radiology Reports which is a mass of terms I don't understand. It must be like this sometimes for my hearers when I am preaching! ;-)
I will send copies to some of my doctor friends together with this blog and if I have misunderstood some of the implications I will correct that later.
The radical surgery went well and my 20 inch scar is healing well. The surgeon removed the entire prostate and stripped some of the lymph nodes. It seems to me that the tumour was confined to the prostate (pT2 for those who understand these things). There was no vascular invasion and the lymph nodes did not contain tumour.
A super sensitive PSA gave a figure of 0.021 ug/L which is good. So they were very satisfied with that figure.
The cancer was confirmed as extremely aggressive which is why they have more plans for me. As far as I understand it the cancer reached to within 0.1mm of the margin of the prostate and although there is no sign of cancer outside the prostate this comes so close to the margins that they want to be sure that nothing is left. So my surgeon is recommending a course of radio-therapy to clean up anything that might be in that area! He refers to it as multi-modular treatment or 'belt and braces'. The radio-therapist will make the final recommendation but he general agrees with the surgeon.
The radio-therapist, whom I have not seen yet, thinks it will be best to leave 3-6 months while the continence issues are settling and will then probably do a 6.5 week course of radiotherapy for 5 days out of each 7. That could be anywhere from July to October.
The surgeon has recommended fresh liver and black pudding to beef up my blood counts which I am looking forward to although it seems I can't get them on prescription. (my surgeon originates in Bury Lancashire, which just happens to be the place that black-pudding originates. There may be a connection between those two facts!;-))
We went for a long walk along the Thames at Henley in the afternoon and though I was very tired when we got back that was a very pleasant outing.
So unless I have to correct any of the above there is likely to be little to report for the next few weeks. Again my thanks for everyone's love and prayer.
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this is a comment from my son who is a consultant physician in the army
ReplyDelete"I spoke to the military urologist who is working here and he thought this was really very good news = "as good as you could hope for & suggests that a complete cure is possible". Apparently some specialists would not even go as far as giving the radiotherapy in this situation, but even so it should be quite "targetted" and hence associated with relatively few adverse effects. I'm not sure what the prognosis of the incontinence problem is in this situation, but I will ask him later"
Sounds very hopeful Ron. I will continue to keep you and Margaret in prayer. Much love to you all.
ReplyDeleteRon,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the update. I enjoy going to work with you each morning and I have come to know you both off and online! I will continue to pray for both you and Margaret and by the sound of it you should be fine.
Lots of love,
Pete T