Rog T's Cancer blog - turmoil, fear and loneliness- Part 2

Yesterday I published part one of this blog. This was primarily detailing my trepidation about today's meeting with my consultant. I deliberately wrote the blog yesterday to try and capture the sense of trepidation I was feeling. Well now I've had the consultation. As I've stated several times, cancer is a strange journey with many twists and turns. I'm a massively superstitious person, therefore I look for signs all of the time. I guess those who are not, consider such ideas foolish, but for me it is important.

I've had a run of not so good things going on recently that stoked this feeling of doom. As I got on the tube to UCH, I actually felt close to panic. Then a good thing happened, on the escalator up from Bond St, I found myself standing next to a good friend from school. This really lifted my mood. I'm a firm believer that friends get you through difficult times and unexpectedly seeing a friendly face lifted my mood. We had a short chat at the top of the elevator and parted.

Then off to UCH. A short wait and in we went, my wife joining me for moral support, which I massively appreciated. We sat down, had a chat and then he went through the biopsy results. I was expecting bad news, not for a rational reason, just a gut feeling. But this wasn't the news. The news was that the evidence of cancers in the biopsy were Gleason 3+3, which are not considered in need of urgent treatment. There was on area that I was advised was possibly worth treating with a further round of HIFU. We discussed and I decided to go for the other option, which is further active surveillance. So it will be another round of MRI next March and regular PSA tests.

So it is a good result. In short, it seems that last years HIFU missed a bit, but it is not something requiring treatment at the moment. I think tonight a small celebration is in order, nothing to fancy.

I feel like a load has been lifted. For me, as previously mentioned the stress and anxiety for me has been the biggest issue. I'm lucky, I have great friends and family, it makes all the difference.