Hi John, Heather & Steve, Ron & Curtis,

Thanks for all the comments and good wishes, I can sure use those
right now, the emotional turmoil has my head spinning.

First of all Heather, I have lived in Canada since 1982, Thorold near
St Catharines Ontario, then Sorel PQ for a couple of years,then the
last 13 years or so in Nova Scotia, Bedford right now, but I spend
some time each year in Wigan, NW England, 12 miles West of Manchester,
we are over here right now looking at the HIFU option offered at
Stepping Hills Hospital in Stockport, just a few miles South of
Manchester.

I may have an option of treatment there {seeing as there isn't any
HIFU option in Canada}, but I'm also looking at Munich or Lyon as fall
backs if needed.

I have looked at all the regular treatments, including Brachytherapy,
but one way and another given a choice I'd {personally} avoid all of
them, for one reason and another. I know they are the confident
choices of many folks, but I think this HIFU treatment might {just
might} be the right one for me.

It's a hell of a game this aint it, I don't mind having a bet at
Woodbine, or on the Maple Leafs, but this bet is winner takes all, not
just your wallet, your life can be {let me rephrase that} your life is
at stake in this gamble.

Maybe like Hockey teams there are folks who think their team is the
best, nothing like having confidence in "something" for that read,
maybe anything!

That and time isn't exactly on your side when your told "you have
cancer", what a roller coaster this is, to bring yourself up to speed
ASAP {weeks to become an expert on saving your life}, and then finding
out who the best butcher in town may be, sigh {I say this as a more
sardonic comment than a critical one agaisnt surgeons, et-al}.

Looking at the Stats, and I don't know if this is worse for me, having
spent the last 30 years as a QA/Statistical Control Engineer, I am
well able to read them, but almost overwhelmed at the differing
results reported.

From what I see {in general} none of the treatments offer a life free
of PCa
{no matter what you do} and reading the stats even watchful waiting
finds its way into the winners enclosure for a good number of folks.

The thing is, how do you place this bet ? I could have major surgery
for a cancer that may well never get much worse than it is now, boy
don't I wish I was 76 rather than 56, sigh.

Watchful worrying doesn't have a lot of appeal to me, I'd go broke
buying devotive candles.

RP doesn't exactly appeal to me either, not that concerned about the
loss of sex life etc, at 56 if there's one thing I could pass up on
that would be it.
But I really don't fancy being incontinent for the next 20 year, and
the odds say I could finish up that way. Let me clarify that, the odds
say I "could" but probably wouldn't, but this is THE one thing that
I'd like to avoid, OK add to that popping my clogs in the the near
future outranks that, but I guess we can take that as a gimme.

So losing my life and control of my bladder rank high for me.

On the losing of the life thing {this is where having worked with
Stats for a long time puts the frighteners to you}...

Stats tell me that anyone having major surgery {surgery that lasts for
over 60 minutes} has a 1 in 300 chance of not coming round from the
anesthesia !
For me a 1 in 300 chance of losing my life aint odds that I'm
comfortable with.

Add to that strokes and heart attacks {Oh ! I've had 2 already} as a
result of surgery add to the already unattractive odds. Did I mention
blood clots forming in the legs and migrating to the lungs and
finishing you off, or the risk involved due to any blood transfusion
you may need.

The above all sponsor me to look what other options I might have, as
mentioned all in all no option carries a guarantee of a cancer free
life {none yet anyway}, so in my way of seeing things maybe the thing
to look at is the impact of the treatment itself ?

Already I'm shying away from RP, and none too keen on Radiation
treatments, some folks have done quite well, but there seem to be some
horror stories also, although the odds do favour a decent outcome.

On to Brachytherapy, looked at this as a favoured option for a few
days, I guess you all know what I've been through 'cause most of you
have been down the same path... Up all night trying to Google your
life back into safe hands.

I think at my age {56} Brachy would be good, and less disruptional /
less traumatic than RP or Beam Radiation, but when weighing up the
odds of me coughing something up that glowed in the night, it started
to lose its appeal.

I know there are some Brachy's that use only temp isotopes, but again
Heather this is a hell of a time {when you are emotionally staggered}
to be looking not only at what options there are, but where in your
locale or for that matter anywhere in the World yo might get the
treatment, while that little ticking time bomb is making you sweat,
sigh.

How long does it give you to make your mind up ? hours, days, a few
weeks or years, no one can safely say, but for me I'd say once you
know the foot race is on, and your should get one form of treatment or
another within 4/10 weeks, why wait any longer ?

I think that a group like this is incredibly important to folks who
are shell shocked by the bad news, maybe we can have some pre packaged
thinking available to them, so that they can get a flying start
towards a treatment they feel comfortable and confident with.

I guess we can all play our part in that, and roll the clock back in
favour of other folks diagnosed with PCa.

IF I had 6 months to think about it, and measure every option, and
with a coooler mind that I have had in many a night the last 3 weeks,
then maybe I'd have / find something better than HIFU ?

I think the new vaccine treatments offer a lot of promise, to deliver
us not just from PCa, but also from the {sometimes} brutal and
{almost} barbaric treatments offered to the innocent.

Although these vaccines are spoken of, I don't have time to evaluate
them or track them down, or see their track record, so like thousands,
nay 10's of thousands of other blokes I'm stuck with what's on the
shelf right now.

One thing I feel comfortable with is, they haven't killed anyone yet
with HIFU, well not directly {sigh}, so that's a plus, and the
reported levels of incontinence are lower than many other standard
treatments, so that's the other can of beans I was looking for.

Not to mention that they don't need to anesthetise you, another plus,
no need for blood transfusions, and no scar to show to the lads in the
pub.

Maybe reading the above you can see why this horse appeals to me...

Over to you John...

Thanks for your comments, HIFU has been practised for well over 10
years, and they have {as you would expect} go better over the years,
but even in the early years HIFU showed a lot of promise.

I understand your comment on the tried and tested {aka the Gold
Standard}, but the thing is John what many accept as the Gold Standard
now was also untried and untested when it first came out, God knows
what options {or lack of them} were available to the poor beggars with
PCa 40 to 50 years or more ago ?

Maybe the goal posts are about to be moved by HIFU ? maybe this will
soon become the new Gold Standard {which in itself John went the way
of the Dodo, it's the Plastic Standard now, for better or for worse}.

All of us are liable to become "statistics" but THANKFULLY the
majority of us will fall into the group of Favourable Statistics, and
that's the way it is with most treatment options.

Again I value your comments and support John, with a common enemy
maybe we can all work towards it's demise rather than our own.

Now for Ron... Thanks for the recent Stats, they don't exactly fill me
with confidence, but Stats are indicative and worthy of reveiw.

If the Stats indicate my outcome then I think that I'm still on this
horse, for the reasons outlined above. I feel that it is still early
days, and maybe IF we could collate ALL the HIFU treatments done for
PCa {from China through Dominican Republic through to Germany, Russia
and the UK et-al} the picture may be a little better ?

From what I've read on HIFU the lower youR PSA the better the DR rate
you might expect, and being at 4.6 as my worst ever, then this appeals
to me.

I would like to Thank ALL of you for your time, considerations,
suggestions and best wishes, it is very much appreciated.

Canada Bob, presently in Wigan, England.