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Now that some of you are talking about such things experience gained re prostate cancer of the last 20 months is as follows.
Do not rely on the digital examination. My specialist checked me as my saga was beginning and indicated all was good. (It was not!)
Do have annual PSA checks from age 40. Reason for this is to determine a base line. Any change that occurs fairly quickly needs to be checked.
How do you check that there is an issue?
Digital examination, trouble is they are apparently more accurate the worse you are. The issue of concern here is that when it is obvious with a digital examination the cancer may have spread beyond the prostate.
Biopsy. I believe we are talking 20 1.5 mm needles poked into the prostate to gather specimens for testing. I was asleep thankfully. More on this later.
The other check that I was advised to consider by my specialist was an MRI. Not just any MRI but a Tesla 3 MRI.
When I got tested (the day after I saw the specialist) on one of the two machines in my area (sixth largest city in the country) and no waiting list as it cost $550 with no medicare rebate.
The Tesla 3 MRI showed multiple areas of severe cancer in my prostate so my specialist then put me under and did a biopsy which he could successfully do as he had a road-map to follow ie the Tesla 3 MRI colour pictures.
Back to the biopsy issue from earlier, my specialist told us twice on several occasions after the op that without the MRI to follow the standard biopsy would probably have missed the cancers. Cheerful stuff!
Next was a full body bone scan to check if the cancers had spread to the bones .
A month after the biopsy I was on the table for five hours with two surgeons and my lovely anaesthetist for a radical prostate removal. Then followed about a week in hospital and now we are doing 3 monthly PSA blood tests to see what needs to be done next.
Do not think it will not happen to you.
Keeping on top of this and similar issues should be done regularly and you need to know the weaknesses in the diagnosis options which I have tried to share based on my own case.
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