Hi Bazza,

I am sorry to hear of your diagnosis. My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer 2 yrs ago. He had an extremely high PSA of 1566. He is 75 yrs old and after being on hormone therapy, which is ongoing and one round of radiotherapy his count is now down to below 4. He lives a normal life and he has blood tests every 6 months to keep an eye on things. There are so many things that can be used to treat this cancer. He is treatable but not curable but it is being kept very much under control. I understand that this is an extremely worrying time for you but try to take each day at a time as like I've said there is so much that can be done. I've found this site a real comfort as there are a couple of guys on here that have shared their experiences which has made us feel so much more positive. 
 

keep strong, 

Ashley 

Hi Bazza01. Welcome to the forum.

I'm not a doctor but I was diagnosed with prostate cancer just over 10 years ago.  Fortunately, it was caught early and treated by surgery.

When it comes to prostate cancer, there are a few important pieces of information that it would be helpful to share.  These are your age and your current PSA reading.  The rest you won't know just yet, but they're the Gleason grade (two numbers, eg 3+4, or 5+5), and the stage (T1, T2, T3 or T4, possibly with other letters at the front or the back). 

Bazza

I'm a just few weeks ahead of you and I hope my experience might help.   I've been checked regularly for eight years following an earlier suspicious PSA reading and just before Christmas it was up again (6.5) so I had an MRI scan followed by a biopsy and then a face-to-face session with the consultant and specialist nurse.   The biopsy, which was a bit uncomfortable but nothing more, showed Gleason stage 9, which was a bit of a shock, especially as they then started me on some initial hormone therapy that morning.   A bone scan followed which didn't show any sign of the cancer spreading so its a choice now between surgery or hormone/radiotherapy.  As I've just turned 78, surgery isn't recommended and I'm going for the latter.   Its all been a whirlwind but I suppose it was always been there in the background.  Everyone at the hospital has been  very helpful and the prognosis is good.  It's still scarey, though, and at one stage when I was feeling really down the helpline adviser at Prostate Cancer UK was very approachable, really helpful, and did put things in perspective.

Hi Baz,I've had my biopsy,not painful,more uncomfortable,like sitting on a traffic cone.I had high PSA count and a 4 + 3(7) Gleason score.Try not to worry,i never knew how common prostate cancer is until I looked into it.The main treatments are surgery and hormone therapy followed by radiotherapy but other treatments are available.I thought,like you,that's it then,but most patients live years after treatment.My in law grandfather was diagnosed at 70,and live to be 93,so it's not as aggressive as other cancers.I'm going for hormone treatment followed by radiotherapy.With surgery its  about 4 days in hospital and you have to rest a few weeks when u come out.With radiotherapy its hormone treatment,then radiotherapy for 15 minutes,5 days a week,for 2 to 4 weeks. Try not to worry,you will be fine,stay positive.All the best,good luck.  John