Edinburgh Cancer Centre

Today I attended the Edinburgh Cancer Centre to start a course of radiotherapy as I have a wee dose of prostate cancer.

Late in the summer of last year I had a dose of diarrhoea and noticed  the presence of blood when doing the paperwork. The next day I got to see my GP who confirmed the blood was from cracked skin. Phew !!

However he asked me if I minded him checking my prostate while I was there. Of course, let’s make sure all is well. But it wasn’t. He thought there was an abnormality there and needed further investigation. A Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test was organised for me. The result was 1.6, which by all accounts is quite low. Other test results were equally low.

An appointment with Urology was made an this confirmed my GP’s suspicions, there was an abnormality. Peak flow test done and it was off to my local hospital for biopsies. Eighteen samples were taken, eleven of which showed cancerous cells present.

The early timing of this discovery means that all treatment options are open to me. I’m currently on a daily tablet and three monthly hormone injections.

I’ll be attending for a course of radiotherapy treatment until early next month, with reviews on a weekly basis.

We hear a lot on TV and radio about how “broken” our NHS is but I have not see any sign of this as I make this journey towards getting rid of this “lodger”. At every appointment I’ve been treated with dignity, respect and a whole load of kindness.