summut serious

[Bilboro-lad 294]

How did you give a stool sample? Can you do it on demand like a blood test? And what did she do with it?

Apparently most lady docs won't do a DRE cuz all the blokes were lining up. (weird people out there).

[fch782c 144]

When did we change the subject or have I awoken into a not so parralel universe?

[colly0410 1,181]

Re # 26,

You do it at home, put it in a sealed envelope, & post it, quite painless..... She said "has anyone got or had prostate cancer in your family" I said without thinking "yes, my Father-in-law" boy did I feel Daft..... FIL was successfully treated with hormones but a heart attack finished him off. I was with him when a Doc said "something else will most likely get you" & he was right.

Hope all goes well for you & all the best for the future A Charlesworth...

[OLDACE 196]

Colly, I recommend that you insist on a PSA test, I had no history of prostate cancer in my family. You have nothing to lose.

[colly0410 1,181]

Booked in for next week, thanks for info Oldface..

[Bilboro-lad 294]

No wonder we can't get appointments when we need them - the hypochondriacs have booked them all up.

[colly0410 1,181]

Bilboro-lad,

I'm also seeing doc for somat else as well..

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Colly. I too asked about the test when I last had a blood test but the gp said that having the test will often show a false positive and that would lead to rather unpleasant tests via biopsy up the bum and the biopsy itself can cause complications that you never had before the test. Statistically 48 men have to be treated for prostate cancer (not tested) to save one life. There are other things far more likely to kill you than that. If it were crucial to health then testing would be carried out like the bowel cancer screening. The fact that it isn't indicates it doesn't help.

[colly0410 1,181]

I don't know if she'll be testing for prostate but I've got to see her anyway, I've been reading up on it & saw the 48 test thing you mention, FIL was 80 when his PC was spotted & he went with back ache. I understand that testing for things can give false positives & cause un-needed treatment so I'll let them decide. I was checked for bowel cancer as that runs in my family, Mam & Uncle had it..

[... 1,411]

No one should diognose other people i dont consider myself to be a hypocondriat do you think that i would have had surgery to remove that cancer had i not had a long talk with the surgeon on life expectancy and other factors that are involved all this macho s...t gets on my nerves why should i have given up my appointment at the doctors .To me all life is important and has we age we have to be responsible for our own health one death in 48 is very high if there where ioo people and you was one and you where told only 98 would live you would want to be one of thse 98 what people are doing by getting checked is to trying to ensure ioo people go home if you feel that you dont want a PSAthat is your choice but how would you feel if someone died of prostate cancer because of what you said I WILL REPEAT GET CHECKED IT IS NOT HYPOCONDRIA IT IS COMMON SENSE as isaid before i will be happy to be wrong if you all get tested and receive the all clear .if you smoke drink or are fat it makes no difference GET CHECKED.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

If you smoke you have a 50% chance of dying from it. STOP SMOKING.

Smoking kills over 100,000 every year - but I don't see everyone packing up.

If you want to get checked with a PSA test then fine, but it isn't recommended by the health authorities.

[... 1,411]

If a cancer is a non aggressive cancer and would take lets say 15 years to kill a 80 year old man would be left because the operation would be agreater risk but if you were a55 year old reasonably fit then it would be reasonable to think you would ssurvive surgery. howeverif you have an aggressive form of cancer that is on the edge o your prostate then i would imagine surgery would be performed anyway because if you only have cancer in your prostate to remove your prostate lessens the chances of cancer spreading throughout your body that is why you have scans o the whole of your body in my case my PSA was a little high so i waited a few months ut was still rising so i opted to have it removed when it was removed it was found to be larger than thought. there are so many different factors ater you are tested then you make decisions accordingly you listen to the proffessionals not some bloke down the pub/

[Bilboro-lad 294]

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/prostate/mortality/

I'm sure we can trust Cancer Research. If I'm reading the graphs right then only 24 in 100,000 deaths are attributable to prostate cancer. The likelihood is that 100,000 biopsies will cause infections that lead to deaths too.

Let the medical world decide if we all need screening. None of us have a clue what we are talking about.

[... 1,411]

It isnot true to say that PSAtests are not recemended i would not speak to a dentist about my feet if you want facts ask the appropriate people dont make decisions based on other people the facts/ that i was told by the appropriate people was thousands of people die each year from prostate cancer most of which were avoidable had they been tested or let me put it this way when i was in hospital the ones wiyh the least problems were the ones who were diognosed early.

[... 1,411]

You are right we dont know what we are talking about that is wwhy iam quoting what the professionals told me THE MAIN THING THAT STUCK IN MY HEAD WAS THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF UNESSARY DEATHS THROUGH PROSTATE CANCER BECAUSE IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO GET MEN TESTED THE REASON PROSTATE CANCER IS NOT SHOWING AS HIGH AS OTHERS COULD BE THAT ONCE OUTSIDE YOUR PROSTATE IT CAN BECOME MORE DIFICULT TO REMOVE .AND IT CAN SPREAD TO OTHER AREAS .ITS NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM THINGS ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO REPLACE THE PSA TEST JUST REMEMBER PSA IS A SIMPLE BLOOD TEST IF ANY PROBLEMS YOU WILL BE ADVISED ALL THE WAY ALONG ULTIMATELY YOU WILL MAKE THE DECISIONS BUT YOUR DECISIONS WILL BE BASED ON FACTS

[Bilboro-lad 294]

It's no good shouting. Basically what you are saying is that you won £100 on a scratch card and now we should all go out and buy scratch cards. You keep banging on about just one form of illness when it isn't really likely to be the one that kills us. Stopping smoking, stopping drinking and watching our diets is what will save lives. Let's get it into perspective shall we?

[... 1,411]

It is very interesting despite your views on everything you tell us that you asked your doctor about PSA test and then decide for everybody else that for them there are more important matters maybe he gives that response to hypocondriats. Get checked .

[... 1,411]

Incidently people that have had a lifetime of smoking drinking and bad diet develop problems linked to that lifestyle telling people to stop and things will be allright is stupidity but i would imagine most people would realise that/.

[... 1,411]

Colly thank you for your good wishes .you make sure you are well mate good health is important for EVERYONE.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Telling them to carry on as they are is a sure route to an early grave. Anyway, it seems that you know best and that science/medicine has got it wrong.

From Cancer Research:

Heavy/long-term smoking is associated with an 11–22% increase in risk of prostate cancer, and current smokers have a 14% increased risk of dying of prostate cancer, with a risk increase of 24–30% for those with the highest exposures, according to a meta-analysis.

BTW, Mr Charlesworth - do you smoke?

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

All health advice is for the general good of the average person. But people are human beings. I smoked for 15 years but stopped only to save for a car. Fortunately I didn't start again and never will. But within months of stopping I developed Crohns disease and thrombosis problems. The doctor told me that when smokers stop they often develop long term health conditions.

Another instance is my wife's friend who had Leukemia in 1959 when she was 10. In those days, Leukemia was almost certainly a death sentence but she is in her mid 60s now and has smoked ever since.

I know of smokers who lived to be in their 90s. Everyone's genetic make-up is different. Some people eat crap and are fit as hell. Others are healthy eaters but always seem to be poorly.

Also. Some people smoke because of stress. Some people drink to blot out previous abuse. Some people eat crap because it is cheaper.

But I would recommend eating reasonably healthy, drinking in moderation and never smoking.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Yes I'd agree with that Bilbraborn. I Gave up smoking 30 years ago, drinking 25 years ago but I'm still a couple of stone too heavy. What we need to do is look at our health overall and not just focus on one disease.

[... 1,411]

I have never suggested smoking drinking or like yourself over eating nor have i ever suggested concentrating on one form of illness i was sugesting a PSA check as part of a process I dont smoke or drink i dont drive and walk over 5 miles a day min around where i live it is very hilly i am not over weight am i worth saving why dont you read what i put if i did smoke and considered stopping i may be put off by the fact that it may cause long trrm illness the probable is you will have long term smoking related illnesses anyway but by stopping for example it may result in you being able to breathe more easily as you get older .In my case the psa was a major factor in initial diognosis my gleason reading was a little high and was advised to do some thing about it i did not panic i said i would leave it for nine months and have another test my gleason level had risen to 3+4=7 iwas diognosedwith stageT1c i had a bone scan and a MRI which showed the cancer was still contained in my prostate so to remove theprostate would remove the cancer when it was removed it was aT2c cancer so had i followed your advice i would either be dead or having cancer spreading throughout my body so your statistics mean othing to me and you should not quote parts of advice you should look at the whole picture.By the way if you were still smoking i reakon you would be telling us why it is ok to smoke. I hae quarterly blood tests so no guarentees but at least i am being observed.GET IT CHECKED

[... 1,411]

Thats quite funny on this page you are making judgements on people who smoke or drink but under what you did when you were young you are saying that you would do drugs all over again is that not hypocritical /. looks like i was right what ever you do is ok.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

But it was simply bad luck in your case. If checking the entire population were a good idea like bowel cancer or breast screening it would be done.

Just because someone wins the lottery every week it doesn't follow that we all will if we start to play.

Current medical advice is that PSA testing for the population at large is NOT a good idea. Write to the Minister for Health if you think that it is.

Biopsies have side effects and are not overly accurate. So if you have a high PSA reading and a negative biopsy - was the PSA a false positive? Or the biopsy a false negative? Most GPs seem to be against it. It's up to everyone to make up their own minds, not you to browbeat them into a test that may do more harm than good. That's all I've got to say on the matter. Let everyone talk to their GP and make up their own minds.