Hi kwh. Welcome to the forum.

I'm not a doctor, but I went through the prostate cancer mill 7 years ago.

Presumably you had a biopsy as well.  Would you kindly share with us the results, particularly the Gleeson grade (eg. 4+3), how many needle cores were positive for cancer, and your latest PSA reading.  Did you have any other tests you haven't mentioned?

Surgery is a common option in cases where the cancer is either fully contained, or has spread to one or two local lymph nodes, although in the latter case you will almost certainly need further therapy, such as hormone therapy before or after surgery, and radiotherapy afterwards. Of course, I'm no expert and it's your consultant who will decide what's best for you. 

Hi kwh and welcome to the forum.

I know you're wanting to get some insight and clarification on what your new consultant has told you so I just wanted to stop by and give you our cancer nurses telephone number in case you wanted to chat to them about this. Their freephone number is 0808 800 4040 and their lines are open Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. 

Ultimately your consultant is the best person to discuss this with as they are the one looking after you so it may be worth setting up an appointment with them or just giving them a quick call so you can get your questions answered and fully understand what is going on and why.

All the best, 

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Further to Steph's comments, I think it would be advisable to find out why you've been given two conflicting reports: one that it's contained, and the other that it has spread. Possibly, the revised report is due to information (test results) that came in later. It may seem a minor issue, but the prognosis for prostate cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes is not as good as cancer which is fully contained, and of course you are looking at having further treatment in addition to the surgery. 

Possibly if you were to talk to the consultant's secretary, you could find out if the consultant's email address to sent a message with all your questions.  

thanks for the replies i have a preop on the 15th and my op on the 20th been told about three weeks recovery keeping positive thanks again

Gleeson ranges from 6 to 10, so 7 is not a very high score.  It's probably low to medium risk, which is most encouraging. 

I still don't understand why you've been given conflicting reports. But if you're having surgery then the prostate and the lymph nodes will be removed and carefully examined in the lab. Then the true situation will be known.

If the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes then I'm afraid you'll be looking at follow up radiotherapy, and possibly some other forms of treatment.  I was lucky - I didn't need that. 

Modern anaesthetics are dreamy! If you're nervous, then at your assessment you can ask the anaesthetist to prescribe a pre-op sedative. This will help keep you calm while you're waiting to be taken down to surgery. I recommend you take in an MP3 (or tape) player with some relaxing music that you can listen to.  The actual process of going under is just fine. The anaesthetist puts a line in the back of your hand, and infuses a white fluid called Propofol (or "Milk of Amnesia").  Then it's as if time jumps and suddenly you're in the recovery room. Unlike the old anaesthetics, then new ones don't make you feel sick and you should be fully alert within 10-15 minutes.  They may want to ply you with cups of tea and biscuits!  If you're in pain then don't hesitate to ask for the good stuff (morphine), but most men don't report much pain. 

Then it's an overnight stay (and you probably won't get much sleep so you'll need your MP3 player again), then you'll be given a stash of drugs, and it's home to recover. You'll wear the catheter for about 2 weeks, and I found it quite ok.  You'll also be given 28 preloaded syringes of anticoagulant. You'll need to inject yourself with one every day. Again, it's quite easy and I had no problems. 

The real problems begin when the catheter is removed. For a day or so your body will send conflicting signals about whether you want/need to pee. You probably won't get much sleep the first night, and when you do pee it will be full of blood and debris; that will last at least 6 weeks, if not more. You'll need a supply of pads which you should buy while you're still wearing the catheter. Keep doing the pelvic floor exercises because they really work, but don't expect the leaks to stop until your pee is clear. I recommend you switch to decaff tea and coffee as this will also help. You can switch back later if you want. It took me about 6 months before I was confident enough to ditch the pads, but after 9 months I went on a day trip to London on the train with no protection at all and had no problems.  I donated all the pads I had left to the urology department of my local hospital. 

thanks Telemando for you post it has reassured me a lot if i do take an mp3 player i will probably play something from dark side of the moon i see from your profile picture a guitar do you  play? i have recently aquired a les paul copy 70s lawsuit to add to my collection of 8 it plays lovely thanks again

I love Dark Side of the Moon.  It came out when I was a student and I was (and still am) very much into prog music. Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Strawbs, Yes, Fairport, Moody Blues, Renaissance, Lindisfarne, Cat Stevens, Elton John with a side order of new age (Enya, Sally Oldfield) thrown in.  Plus lots of other stuff. 

If you count the tuning pegs you'll see that my profile picture is actually a mandolin. I've an electric (in the picture) which is a Hutchins Telemando (hence my moniker) and a new Fender electro-acoustic. Both good instruments. I'm currently in a scratch band that meets somewhat erratically, and I'm the only mandolin player in a ukulele band, too.