Things feel different during the brachytherapy cycle

It's not so much the operation of having the radioactive seeds inserted into your prostate. It's more about how you feel afterwards and what the "new normal" is all about. The operation itself was no big deal from the end user point of view: go into hospital, get anaesthetised, come round, feel a bit sore, wee through a catheter, bleed a bit, have catheter removed, stop bleeding, manage to wee on one's own, get discharged. Easy. (I'm pretty certain it was quite a big deal from the point of view of those doing the operation though because the little operating theatre was packed!)

Nor was it about the first few weeks, apart from the need to get over the anaesthetic and then to recover from having your bits bashed about a bit. Everything was generally OK, although blood in urine and semen might seem a big deal.

Post-operative visit to the oncologist

When you've had any operation to fix prostate cancer, there are always issues that emerge, whether they are to do with urination, sexual ability or bowel movements. It's all congregated in that one little area. In terms of design, it's not that optimal, really. The poor old urethra - bodily fluids motorway in men - passes right through the prostate so, if you tamper with the prostate, you're going to piss off the urethra.

Hence, one will have post-operative symptoms of soreness when passing water or during ejaculation. Or worse, it might completely block up as the prostate swells in protest, constricting the flow. So, discussing this with your doctor, about seven weeks after the operation, is normally fairly high on the embarrassment scale. Factor in that the doctor is about 23 and female and there's a nice female nurse in attendance, giggling in the corner and you have an idea of why Gloria and I just thought, "Sod it! We'll just tell it as it is."