This post,  My Prostate Cancer Treatment Update – Pt11, follows on from my previous one and explores some of the health issues I have, or have had, over recent years and culminating into my ultimate battle, since May 2006, with an aggressive prostate cancer which I am happily – and successfully it would appear – managing using herbs and natural remedies.

Intermittent Frank Haematuria – Cause & Effect 2003 – 2006. Experienced intermittent periods of Frank Haematuria, (blood in urine) say, two to three days every six weeks or so, and sometimes quite profusely. To find the cause I had a Cystoscopy/retrograde Pyelogram in August 2003 and another in December 2005 with a different urologist (I had not been impressed by the first one). Both results proved negative with no reliable explanation found.

Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) My own belief was that the bleeding was being initiated by my pre-existing (1995) benign prostate enlargement (benign prostate hypertrophy. BPH) first discovered in 1985 and for which I had twice undergone a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). I considered that the prostate was being agitated by me sitting for long periods at the computer or driving long distances, but this was discounted by both urologists.

My Prostate Cancer – A belated Discovery The second urologist (looking after me currently – at a distance) did however later acknowledge that my physical posture when computing or driving could possibly be contributing to my bleeding. Furthermore, concerned about my prior history he had suggested more tests to positively determine the cause. This being something the first urologist hadn’t bothered to suggest. Had he done so, it is probable that the cancer in my prostate would have been discovered one year earlier than it was, for that is what the new tests revealed, an aggressive cancer.

More than My Fair Share of Diseases Having had my gall bladder removed in 1977; a large benign tumour on my Thyroid removed in 1992; my right, cancerous kidney removed in 1995, a Cholestiatoma (benign tumour) in my left ear in 1989 and another in 2000, culminating in the removal of much of my inner ear causing total deafness in that ear; and later with deadly skin melanomas and carcinomas, I had long been considered a high risk for more cancer issues. Hmm! Strange that! A prophesy you might say! I don’t think one needed to be a brain surgeon to make it though. Do you?  And so, let’s now go to this latest discovery – my prostate cancer:

Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: May 2006. Biopsy: Prostate cancer, Gleason grade 9. (5+4) Stage T1, PSA score 7.30 Cancer identified as aggressive with a high probability of metastasis having already started. A bone scan and a CT scan did not confirm metastasis but these are unlikely to identify early microscopic spread.

TREATMENT OPTIONS: Radical prostatectomy: This is major surgery to remove the prostate, part of the urethra, a small part of the vas deferens and the seminal vesicles. It was excluded because of the likelihood of cancer cells having started to spread already. Therefore, my four available options were given as:

Brachytherapy: High or low dose radiation by way of seeds or radioactive substances inserted into the prostate gland. Low dose radioactive seeds inserted into the prostate are retained there. High dose brachytherapy involves the temporary insertion of radioactive substances into the prostate

Hormone Therapy: Taking drugs to minimize the effect of testosterone in the belief that it can stop or slow the growth of the cancer. My understanding of this is that Hormone treatment becomes ineffective within eighteen months or so. The patient’s next option is then to have his testicles removed. And they call this an option??

External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT): Here beams of radiation external to the body are aimed at the prostate, using CT scan to direct the beam on to the prostate directly. My early research into this indicated a high probability of both short and long term side-effects because the beams can damage or destroy nerves and good tissue as well. Although you wouldn’t think so by reading medical literature, which so often tends to play down such issues. More recent technological advances however have supposedly reduced the side effects issue considerably with radiation beams now being directed with far great accuracy.

Watchful Waiting: Having no treatment but to hold fast and monitor the cancers growth. This was to be the option I selected without any hesitation at all. This is an alternative for those who wisely take responsibility for their own health and well-being. Men who prefer not to wait around doing nothing but to seek solutions elsewhere with complimentary or alternative medicine.

Better still, to take a holistic approach and find ways to treat the body, mind and spirit as a whole. Knowing that prostate cancer is one of the slowest growing cancers and not wanting to rush into making a rash decision on the options available to me I intentionally put off my decision for several weeks. Besides, after discussions with my darling wife I was already half convinced that I would take the watchful waiting method anyway and treat myself with herbal remedies and natural medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) but now that crunch-time had arrived I just wanted to check my facts first. Although I was fully aware of several experimental allopathic medical procedures that were supposedly producing good results in Australia, I was reluctant to pursue them as the jury was out – and still is – and also, I was never in the business of volunteering to be experimented upon.

An even further caution was that my research over recent years clearly showed that a great deal of the supportive information relating to the success of new surgical treatments or procedures was being commercially generated by those companies supplying the technical equipment or support facilities for those procedures. Hardly unbiased, valid, testimonial I would say.

The only way to establish the facts pertaining to surgical outcomes and side effects for allopathic procedures and treatments is to talk to patients following their treatment. And preferably quite some time afterward. Fortunately, with the advent of the computer this can easily be done these days by joining on-line medical or health related discussion forums. In my next post I will talk about my diet and the herbal and alternative health remedies I am using and/or experimenting with. So please stay tuned…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Time For An Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.