"Being on the Prostate Cancer Pathway"

I went to see my Dr at the Broomhill Surgery.  Dr France has been the person I have seen for many years and he has always delivered excellent GP care, listening carefully and taking action appropriately and efficiently.  Sadly he has now retired but I would like to thank him for all of his care.  Several times my care has been helped by us having a long standing patient-dr relationship, where both trust and knowing the person have been so important.  We discussed my middle aged bladder symptoms and after examining me and two slightly abnormal PSA tests I was referred to Urology at the Hallamshire Hospital.   

I was seen relatively quickly following referral no doubt because of the cancer pathway targets.  Staff on the unit were all lovely.  The nurse who assessed me carried out an unpleasant examination gently and communicated well.  He also did some scans and talked me through the process.  I was slightly surprised to be sent over for an MRI at Weston Park.  Following that I was sent away and then phoned up a couple of weeks later to be told there was a suspicious area and that I should come in for a biopsy.  I was a bit taken aback by this but obviously saw the need for a firm diagnosis.  Bear in mind that apart from my symptoms I felt and feel really well and not ill at all.

I then did what you do ie took the day off work and prepared myself for what could only be an unpleasant process.   So when I got there I then saw a consultant for the first time.  He introduced himself and found us a room so we could talk over my results and plan.  He talked about his knowledge in this area and we had a frank and open discussion about treatment options.  Given the low level of risk we both agreed not to have the biopsy, and that for now we would take a monitoring approach and have another test in August and take it from there.  He explained about the risks of surgery, we talked about my mental approach to the possible diagnosis and balanced the options.  I was very grateful and impressed with this really excellent communication and felt fully and appropriately involved in my treatment plan.  

Seeing the whole me

I went home pleased but a little shocked at how it had turned out.  So overall I am really grateful for the fantastic care that I have had.  I feel lucky that I have felt this level of confidence in the care throughout.  

But given that this is a site to report on what could be improved or what could be different here is my short list:

1.  I can only guess the pressure the hospital is in to hit targets around prostrate cancer and given all the recent publicity, the numbers they will be dealing with.  However it would have saved me some emotional energy and some practical work-related energy had I been able to have that conversation with the consultant before the day I was called in for and expected to have a biopsy.

2.  The little waiting area in urology where the tests were done is very small.  So a man was given a bad result for one of the tests and was with his partner and they were quite distressed.  Myself and another patient were sat nearby and there was little privacy.

3.  The staff at the MMI unit were lovely and actually reasonably informative at Weston Park.  However despite feeling ok when I went into the scanner I had a flash back to a really unpleasant childhood experience, and nearly had to stop it.  It would really have helped if the staff had explained a bit more fully whether I would move whilst the scan was underway.  I was struggling with the thought of being pulled deeper into the scanner.  Also given the length of the scan (40 mins)  it would have helped to have a bit more communication through the scan about timings etc.  I was spoken to briefly when there was 10 mins left.