Part 3 – The Decision

It was now time to make a decision. My PSA had climbed rapidly , another MRI scan showed an 18mm tumour and things didn’t feel quite right. I arranged to see my consultant who went through the options, including continued surveillance, despite PSA now hitting 18. I had read enough about the radiotherapy on offer to know that it effectively precludes surgery in the future, due to scarring damage, so if the radiotherapy did not work, there would be nowhere to go. (I have since discovered other options, more later). I also mentioned nerve-sparing as often as I could get it into the conversation.

High frequency ultrasound was also ruled out as my cancer was not of the “right type” for this treatment. Which left surgery. Now since the consultant was a surgeon, I am minded to think that this is what he would recommend over other options, after all that’s what he knows best, but maybe that’s a little cynical.

We went through the likely scenario, two months waiting list, one night in hospital, then two weeks of catheter, and 3 months of “no heavy lifting” before settling back to normal life. I knew that I would no longer ejaculate, but this still sounded like the only game in town and manageable.

As we were getting up to leave, he casually threw in ” and your penis will be shorter”.

I sit back down, thinking “Don’t leave that to the end. Open with that info”.

“How much shorter?” I ventured.

“Difficult to say” he said.

“5%? 20%? 50%?” Will i need a squirrel with a lamp to find it? i thought.

After a few moments he said “Perhaps about 15 %”

So I chose surgery.

None of the above happened as had been suggested.

Although the squirrel is quite happy.