Originally posted July 4
Not much blogging recently, mainly because I didn’t want to harm my happy-go-lucky upbeat reputation (just joking). This is a bit more serious.
I’m still battling with some health problems, but at least I’ve come through one worrying phase. I was hit with the curse of the older man – rising levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) that can mean prostate cancer. My GP had a good feel (ouch!) then sent me to a specialist who had another good feel. He recommended a prostate MRI, the latest in diagnostic tools.
The MRI showed a “tumour-suspicious nodule” with a top score of 5 on a 1 – 5 PI-RADS scale. That score meant “Clinically significant cancer is highly likely to be present.” That news was a bit depressing as you may imagine! The next step was a biopsy to see whether the nodule was in fact cancerous.
Thank goodness the biopsy (TRUS biopsy 28 cores) found “No evidence of malignancy, no atypical glands.” Phew! I’ll spare the details of the procedure and the uncomfortable aftermath. So I can put that behind me (har har).
I still have some of the symptoms I described in May – mild headaches, swollen glands in the neck and fatigue. Added to that, I have peripheral neuropathy – pins and needles in my hands and feet. It’s now spread beyond that and is more or less all over. My GP doesn’t seem to be too worried about it. He said if it started to affect my muscles I should go to hospital. I have an appointment with a neurologist in a couple of weeks, let’s hope he can fix me up, or better still, that it all just goes away.
This is an uncomfortable reminder of the strange illness I had when I was 24 that put me in Northampton Hospital – Guillain-Barre Syndrome. GBS is a form of nerve inflammation resulting in spreading paralysis. It took me nine months to get over that!
