The PSA tests, every 3 months, were the main effect. I built a system on Excel to produce the graphs for the PSA levels, including a predictor for the "final" level. For some reason, since the initial diagnosis, the PSA level has trended downwards, which has been very reassuring. My annual meeting with my consultant have followed the annual MRI and more recently have just been a telephone call. Luckily I have not needed more biopsies...not the most pleasant of things but less unpleasant than a tooth extraction. In general, there appears to be no overall change and I feel that the selected treatment was the best choice for my circumstances.
Yes
Well, it is possible that in the intial shock, an unnecessarily extreme treatment might have been selected, with all those associated potential problems. As my consultant said, many men don't die of prostate cancer, but they do die with it. The monitoring is an appropriate level of treatment and I can change to some thing more aggressive if the prostate cancer should suddenly become more active.
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