September 2008!
I guess I really should introduce myself, my name is Rob Davies, and I am 39 years old. I have a loving wife and three amazing children aged between 2 and 8. I have Prostate Cancer. I have it, my Father had it, and both my Grandfathers had it. Unfortunately I lost both Grandparents to Prostate Cancer but I am happy to say that my Father survived and is now into his fourth year “Cancer Free”!
I am writting this blog as a way of helping other “young” men who are diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. I will add updates to the blog which will include some technical stuff about the cancer, and also a more personal “why me” and “I’m too young” information.
Anyway just to bring you up to date with events.
Back in September 2008 we were living in Nottingham having moved there a year before. We are originally from the Berkshire area and moved north due to work commitments and also some personal reasons too, which I won’t go into here.
Anyway my twin brother took it upon himself to have a PSA test done on a whim one day at the start of September 2008. He called me up and said that I should get a test done and that his was all clear. That week I headed for my GP having only recently registered with him to discuss the PSA test. Initially I felt that he thought I was having a laugh and explained to me that they just don’t do PSA checks for people of my age (38 at the time) then I explained my family history and that changed his mind.
The test we taken at the GP’s the following day along with some routine Liver Function Tests which I have been having over the past few years. There was nothing unusual about the blood test, hold out your arm, pump your hand, and then the slight scratch as the needle went it, but it did feel a little strange knowing what they were going to be checking for.
The results came back a week later, and I was called into see the GP. My wife and I sat in his small consulting room and listened while he went through the results of the Liver Function Test first. Good news, the liver is getting better! But this wasn’t what I was interested in to be honest, in fact i missed it the first time round and my mind was wondering forward to the PSA results.
Mr Davies… your PSA level is raised.
What? what does that mean? I asked him looking blankly across the store-cupboard cum office. In a nutshell, my results came back as a PSA score of 3. The threshold is 2.5 therefore my PSA was “raised”. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem the GP said but given your age and family history I think I need to refer you to a consultant. I think at that point my wife jumped in and asked outright if I had cancer to which we were told that it was very very unlikely.
In the next post I will cover the consultant visits in Nottingham covering up until the end of October 2008.