PSA has fallen!

The great news is that the graph is trending down. The visit to my urologist today also gave me the results of my recent blood test and I had started at the post-operative stage after brachytherapy with a PSA of 6.9. Today, I am proud to announce, it's down to 3.0.

This is wonderful because it means that the little radioactive seeds that have been placed into my prostate are doing their work, killing the cancer and thereby reducing the PSA count. This process will go on for some time yet. Currently I am something over four months on from the op and generally the seeds remain active for around six months.

Normality resuming after brachytherapy?

Here are Gloria and I having a wonderful time - well, similar!

Gloria and I have just returned from a two week holiday on a cruise liner.  It was fabulous and we had a great time, mainly because we both relaxed completely. She did have her laptop with her, but the Internet service was so poor that she really was not able to do much so she had to pay attention to me!

It's hard to tell whether things are getting back to normal because, largely, there's not been a huge change. However, it's easy to be fooled. The changes post-brachytherapy happen very slowly and you barely notice. Yet if those changes had taken place overnight, you would be quite shocked, possibly.

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."

Six weeks after brachytherapy - exciting!

Actual scan of my pelvis, showing the seed implants quite clearly

The six week mark after you've had brachytherapy is one of those points where you get to see what the surgeon has managed to achieve. In my case, that was a pelvic CT scan followed by a blood test.

Gloria decided that I needed to be driven to the hospital but, this time, she didn't bring her laptop! Apart from the shock of that revelation which, I'm sure you'll agree, either indicates she doesn't have enough to do or, perhaps, she's really taking this seriously. Since she has done from day one, I suspect the latter. It's certainly not the former because she continued to handle emails and chats on her phone - so same difference, really.

Five weeks on from brachytherapy operation - what's the score?

Things have definitely started to warm up in the radioactive response department. Last week, there were the first nigglings of reactions to the seeds embedded in my prostate. How did these manifest themselves? Firstly, most urination sessions begin and end with a little gasp as the urine passes through the inflamed urethra - and sometimes it gets a bit urgent, if you know what I mean! This is perfectly normal and indicates that the seeds are doing their job. This will possibly get a little worse in the next week or so but should then taper off.

Fatigue is probably the bigger thing for me - not because I have not been sleeping. People have told me that they are up two or three times in the night to wee. Not me - maybe once, possibly, but most nights, not at all. Yet, nonetheless I feel that my stamina is less and activity tires me more easily. Looking this up on Google, it seems that no one really knows why radiation causes fatigue. It could be that healthy cells are being destroyed as well as the cancerous ones and so the body is fighting to restore those.

A summary of what happens up to and after brachytherapy for prostate cancer

This blog is now getting quite lengthy so I think a quick overview - a helicopter snapshot - might be in order. Those of you avid followers (in your thousands, well quite a few anyway) will already know the background and how I was fortunate to be blood-tested and came up with an elevated PSA result.

In the Prostate Cancer Begins Like This article, I covered off that part of my story and how Gloria, ever supportive, came with me to many of my appointments. The key thing here is the #dontfearthefinger hashtag because, quite frankly, if that's all that stands between you and a debilitating cancer, it's an easy check.