Here is an extract from an email sent to me by Peter, an old friend of mine in South Africa. He sent it to me in November, 2007. I publish it with his permission.
...about my own brush with prostate cancer. I was diagnosed with it in February this year, although suspected since August 2006, but that was just before my by-pass (I sent you an email about that), so prostate surgery was not appropriate right then. I had the prostatectomy in May, so am now 6 months over it. The immediate post-surgery time was not nice - all the stuff surrounding 3 weeks of catheter and then the subsequent incontinence was really traumatic. There was a guy at work who had gone through it all a few years back and he was a great encouragement to me. It is all looking OK now (my two PSA readings since the surgery have been 0.06 and 0.09 - which is essentially "undetectable", and I hope it stays down there in the less than 0.1 area), but during the first month or so after the catheter came out (which itself was 3 weeks after the surgery), I was quite desparate about ever coming right. If you have to go the surgery route, let me know and maybe I will be able to provide a long-distance shoulder to cry on.
In a follow-up email Peter wrote:
I think people normally like the radiation because it doesn't involve being admitted to hospital/anaesthetic/etc. But my reading tells me that the side effects of radiation can be just as bad as those from prostatectomy - i.e. urinary incontinence or the opposite (blockage), impotence, etc. On top of that the radiation (unless you do the one where they sort of inject radioactive little blobs into the prostate) can cause damage to all the surrounding stuff. In the end, I suppose, everyone has to make their own decision. It's not easy, though, when you are just a layperson in medical terms.
Thank you, Peter, for your frank sharing of your experience with prostate cancer and I am glad that, 2 years later, you are still getting those negligible PSA counts.
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