Wow Billy you are doing well from what you say . Your PSA is perhaps a tiny bit high which shows minute activity possibly from any healthy remaining prostate cells and maybe a bit from  dying cancer cells that are still in the bloodstream .BUT nothing to be concerned about . PSA is released into the bloodstream and is a marker for cell growth both healthy and cancer .You sound like someone who is going to be around for a long time .Why not try a 2 day fast each week no food from 6 pm until 1pm the follwing day except water NO coffee /tea and drink lots of water . Robinsons Barley Water is best , this washes out the poison s from chemotherapy . It gives your bodily organs a good clean out and will improve your immune system . Vitam D , no fatty acids and a good massage once a fortnight to move the toxins out of your lymphatic system . The fast " gobbles " pre cancerous cells after 6 hours of no food for fuel . Good luck Tonybear

Hi Max  you don't say if you have /had cancer . Not eating is not good though . 

Hi Tony bear I've still got prostate specialist said with it spreading waste of time with cancer being so many other places it could do more harm than good, Thats why keeping eye on psa, 

Billy 

Hi Tony,

my appointment at urology isn’t until June 11which is just within 2 weeks of my GP’s referral but they are arranging a bone scan and CT scan beforehand so I don’t know much yet. Hoping to go on holiday on 14th which I hope is OK after a biopsy. Will be back in time for results. Am eating again after a fear fuelled impromptu fast but have lost a few pounds nearly all belly fat so consolation prize. Trying to get positive and luckily have good friends to take my mind of things and my wife has been brilliant apart from reminding me that she had nagged me for ages to get checked out long before I did. I get more comfort from this informative Chatline though to be honest which has kept me sane. Can’t help wondering how long my PSA has been high and if gone to be checked sooner would have been different. Fruitless thinking I know but I wake up early turning it all over in my mind. Thanks for your valuable advice and will post as soon I know anything or if I need any advice nearer the 11th.

Cheers

Max

Max we ALL worry when we don't know the facts , most men for some weird  reason don't want to know . I did want to know and already had the enquiring mind which you need .My recent 8 weeks radiotherapy gave me an opportunity to build on my past knowledge , which wasn't very much re prostate cancer but I must have asked at least a hundred sufferers of all types of cancer when I was there . Most were prostate cancers but quite a few were other types and sadly quite a few terminal patients on experimental drugs .It was a humbling experience to say the least . I was into everything looking at my own template on the radiotherapy which  "conformed "to my individual cancer and how much planning had gone into it all . I also met a retired radiotherapy coup[le who gave me a lot of reassurance eg if your cancer is deemed aggressive then these tend to respond to treatment much better than less aggressive types . The staff were fighting a battle for every patient despite the odds and it was wonderful to see how much they hated cancer themselves . All I can say is that however bad your prognosis is on your results or indeed good the playing field is much more even than you think . You will find some people with low grade cancer asking others what their grades were just to reassure themselves !! What you need to know is as much as you can about your own individual cancer because every one is highly individualised . Typically a third of Gleason scores are over stated , there are about 24 different types of prostate cancer so what works well for one person does not work for another . I noted that breast cancer sufferers were having their biopsies sent to America for detailed analyis and a full result returned within 24 hours , at a cost of some £2000 . The result would come with a highly individualised treatment plan that was much more likely to work . Cancer of all types never really are completely destroyed and some remain in the blood stream . Some are " debulked" by surgery . Hormone treatment shrinks cancer throughout the body . Now this means that the cancer has to start again to regrow and can take many years . The fact that you are now in the sytem means that you will be watched like a hawk with lifetime treatment if necessary and new ones are coming onstream all the time . Have a good holiday and please keep in touch and ask any questions you feel you need to ask . Over the last 6 months I have studied prostate cancer , not just for my own peace of mind but there is much that can be done . The bone scan is important , probably more than anything else . Good Luck Tony

Hi Tony,

  thanks for so much valuable information and insight. I am definitely a "want to know as much as possible" person so that I know exactly what I'm up against and how best to deal with it. You are obviously a real authority on this subject based on your own experiences and once I know where I stand you'll be the first person I turn to to let you know my results and for any answers I need regarding treatment since you have so many practical ideas to ease the journey. I've been so wrapped in myself by the way that I've never asked how you have got on or wished you well so I'm doing that now and thanking you so much for your invaluable support.

All the best   Max

Hi Max only too glad to help . Whilst having no formal medical qualifications whatsoever I have worked within  Care Field for many years and went to University aged 50 to gain useful qualifications including an Msc IN NeuroScience that consisted of 4 modules with The Open University , the ageing process , immortalised cells eg cancer , addiction and brain injury . I have quite a bit of experience working in The NHS , Priory and Social Services . I have a very useful grounding in many illnesses and have always been interested in medical stuff . I have been trained to conduct research from many sources and when confroned with some illness that affects me personally really go to town using very recent data . Prostate cancer is now entering a new phase and new interventions being used in general practice . Just this week the man wwas injected with a silcone implant to add space to the gap between the prostate and the bowel making radiotherapy much safer . Also new drugs to add longevity to thouse with advanced cancer have been introduced . Now the Press really overdue their claims BUT think of adding 6 months or more onto your already increased Life Span not some miracle cure ! That is some way off yet but these extra months add up . Remember a very large group of highly professional staff are now ON YOUR TEAM and you will be closely monitored now that you are in the system . These staff fight tremendously hard to save /extend your life . What people do not appreciate is that once the tumour is debulked=made smaller by whatever means it has to start growing again and it probably took years to get to its current stage . Of course some cancers have very high doubling rates and can regrow in a few weeks fortuantely they are rare . Also the life predictions for many cancers are many years older when people were treated with older drugs so the longevity overall must be greatly increased . Best wishes Tonybear

No the results are examined by skilled staff who examine each of the , usually , 12 samples . There could be several varieties of cancer which are graded by how different the cells look from healthy normal cells . You will be given a local anaethesic and the process takes about 10 minutes . You will just feel a sharp tug but it is soon over . The results are graded from 1-5 and then the most common cancer is stated as the first number and the second is the second group of the most common . The seem to always err to the worst score typically the Gleason scores are about a third greated than they are . So You may get a Gleason score last this - (4+3 =7 . This means that the most common cancer is 4 followed by the second one . A Gleason score of 7 is low in terms of spreading and aggression and you may well not have any further treatment other than regular checks . My Gleason Score was (4+5)=9 which is very aggressive and highly likely to spread . However this is where it strats to ghet complicated because -Prostate cancer is generally slow growing and has a low " doubling" rate so the term " highly aggressive " for one cancer does not necessarily mean the same for the different cancers -so don't panic when you get the result ! You may find that not all the 12 samples are even abnormal . The results take about 14 days from the procedure . You may need a bone scan just to check that the cancer has not spread outwith the prostate . Even this is not as bad as you might think -mine had spread into the seminal glands but was still regarded as " locally advanced prostate cancer" which is deemed to be curable . The stage of the cancer can now be graded as T1 , T2 both being cancers contained within the prostate gland itself or T3 a or b , mine was the latter or T3bNoMo  which means it has not spread to the lymph nodes or spread ,metasised . The latter is usually T4 or advanced but even this is still categorised as locally advanced cancer and potentially curable . Stage 4 is often advanced but is still treatable usually with chemotherapy and can extend life by another 20 years or so . I really need to get your results and then can tell you with much more accuracy what the next stages are /could be . You will ceratinly be asked which " pathway" you would like and this depends on a wide variety of things .There have been 4 major advances in all stages of prostate cancer as mentioned in the recent press, The Times , a paper that is reasonable accurate unlike the " gutter press" which does more harm that good . I can do nothing to give you a much more detailed explanation at this stage so keep me informed . My personal knowledge is after having radiotherapy /hormone treatment but you will be offered different things . I am constantly learning about what can happen after the primary treatment which is to " debulk" the cancer and if it returns what you can expect , quite a lot do return but there are lots of things to do about that . Good luck 

Tonybear

Hi max

When i had my biopsy nurse took twelve samples i was still laying on the bench she said to me you've got cancer. i was a bit supprised, she then told me to get dressed and showed me a room to wait in two minutes later lady in white smock came in talked to me about me then said I'm sorry but it's cancer. i said i already know nurse who did biopsy told me, other one says just a minute please goes out starts telling off nurse she wasn't supposed to tell me oops.

Billy