Avoid some potentially unnecessary stress, or avoid an exceptionally inconvenient truth. That's the day we had and I don't want you to have that same sort of day. To say it's not such a great day is an understatement. But you take it eventually, and on further examination, you find out that you do have to deal with cancer, and perhaps it's spread a little. Or the last possible outcome: You don't take the test because of your doctor's advice.If on further examination it is still positive, you have detected it as early as you can so you can get treatment underway, thus increasing your chances of survival – so a very useful day.There's maybe been a little stress in between tests but in the end, it's an even greater day! It returns positive, but on further testing, you find out that there is not an issue.You take the test, it returns negative – that's a great day.My doctor suggested only one possible outcome – unnecessary stress.īut there are actually four possible outcomes: It's a simple tick in the box and costs nothing. If you are a bloke and about 50, I would definitely suggest you get a PSA test. I would like to think that others might benefit from my experience. Earlier detection simply leads to better treatment outcomes. Logic suggests if I'd had a test that day, or in the next couple of years after that day, the cancer may have been detected earlier. Who knows? But II do know that it would at least have given a baseline from which to measure. It may or may not have made a difference if I had had my PSA tested when I did my Warrant of Fitness at 50. So take responsibility and be proactive about your health. This is all a bit inconvenient, but it is the truth.īut even though it's is my inconvenient truth, I don't want it to be yours. Since my diagnosis, I have had an operation, six months of chemotherapy, a couple of months of radiotherapy, and ongoing hormone therapy. Over 650 people a year die from prostate cancer - more than twice the 2020 road toll. And my cancer may have had four years to do just that. Obviously it takes time for cancer to spread. Even more inconveniently, after further testing it was confirmed that my cancer had spread beyond my prostate into my lymph system. Eventually I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. © Provided by Newshubįrom there I had biopsies, MRIs, CT/PET scans, blood tests. Glancing back at him I asked what it said. I had my hand on the doorknob to exit the surgery. A couple of weeks later, as I was leaving his consultancy room he said to me the PSA results had just come back.
I went to a new doctor for another matter and asked him to do one as an aside. He didn't tick that PSA test box with his ballpoint pen.Īs it happened, my doctor moved on and it wasn't until four years later that I did get a PSA test. Having been my doctor for quite some time, I acquiesced. He put his hand on my shoulder and said "Conor, you shouldn't do the test". However when he came to tick the box on the form for a PSA test that can detect prostate cancer, his advice was that I shouldn't have that test, due to a trend of false positives which can create 'unnecessary stress'. I didn't care what they were, I just wanted the lot. So I went to my GP and asked him to give me all the tests that I could possibly have. As I had turned 50, I thought I would get a health Warrant of Fitness.