Anthony Mckenna; Prostate Cancer Patient Treated with Hdr Brachytherapy

I had a blood test back in January 2009... And the PSA came back at 8.4... So my GP then referred me to see a specialist at the local hospital... Who then setup going for a biopsy... And three weeks after that I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. As soon as somebody says you’ve got cancer, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions... Its fear, mainly fear I think, you know, why me? Then you hook on to the things that the specialist had said.. And the GP, that the chances are it’s in early stages... All the signs are, I had no symptoms whatsoever, And that’s when I started to look into the various options that would be open to me... Such as surgery, external beam radiotherapy and... Because of my circumstances of being self employed I looked into brachytherapy. Fortunately, the urologist that I talked to was aware of brachytherapy... But only the permanent implants. It would be June 2009 that I saw the specialist at Leeds... Who had since written back to say that yes... The high dose brachytherapy would be OK for my type of cancer. Which I was delighted with because that meant it wouldn’t disrupt work... I could be treated quickly and recover quickly. I had to go on a course of hormone tablets, which is to stop the cancer growing... Until the time slot of the brachytherapy. So I was for two months on hormone tablets. Prior to the brachytherapy I was told I would be given fifteen sessions of external beam radiotherapy... So I had fifteen sessions of radiotherapy at the local hospital... And then the following week, after the last session, I went to Leeds and went in on the Tuesday. The first procedure was carried out on the Wednesday morning. I then had the second procedure carried out on the Friday... And I was home on the Sunday. And everything went very well thankfully. There was no pain, it wasn’t a painful procedure... There was discomfort obviously because of what was happening.... But nothing painful, and as I say... I was back at work within a couple of days afterwards... Albeit working from home, but I was able to go back and do some work. The side effects were minimal. I would say, by the time I saw the specialist 6 weeks after the brachytherapy... I was say 90%, still small problems... But now 5 months on I’m fully recovered. No problems at all and I now just go for PSA checks every three months. I consider myself very fortunate that it’s certainly worked out well for me.