Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

Full list of topics

PSA testing and screening :
The PSA test
Ideas on PSA screening and tests on demand

Signs and investigations :
Signs and symptoms of prostate cancer
Your ideas about causes of prostate cancer
Scans for prostate cancer
Biopsy for prostate cancer

Treatment :
Finding information on prostate cancer treatment
Watchful waiting and active surveillance
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer
Radical prostatectomy
Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy
External radiotherapy
Brachytherapy for prostate cancer
Cryosurgery for prostate cancer
Vaccine trials
Orchidectomy
Chemotherapy for prostate cancer
(HIFU) High intensity focused ultrasound
Trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP)
Complementary approaches
Pain relief
Catheters

Side effects of treatments :
Urinary incontinence
Impotence
Bowel and bladder problems
Lack of energy
Hot flushes, breast tenderness and breast enlargement

Living with it :
How it affects you
How it affects families
How it affects others
Living with it
Support groups
Message to others

Search the whole site
Search in this condition

Prostate Cancer

People's stories

Male 61 - 65

Interview 17

Interview 17

Age at Interview: 63
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 62
Background:

Brief outline:Diagnosed with prostate cancer 1999, prostatectomy 1999.

To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip

To read what was said without video or audio, click here
To print the interview’s text, click here

Describes how some found it surprising that he looked normal
Print And how has people's reaction been to you? Well they were quite surprised because I was fine, I was doing everything that I'd always done. I remember I play bowls and I was on the bowling green in a match one day and I just happened, it came up and I happened to tell somebody and he couldn't believe it (laughs). 'You can't be, you look normal,' well of course I look normal. How do you feel when people react like that to you? Well faintly amused I suppose, yes. So it didn't change any relationships within the family? No, no, no in no way.

Comments on how he found the catheter no problem at all.
Print How did you find having a catheter in hospital? No problem at all, absolutely no problem, it was a practical answer to a problem that they had to solve because of the operation and it just worked like a dream, I didn't find any problem at all. Mine had to stay in longer than other people because mine was a full operation You had radical prostatectomy. That's right. Is that what they call it? Yes, I could never remember that full name and I used to call it drastic instead of radical (laughs) but because the urethra had been cut and sewn together then obviously the catheter had to go in until that was all healed. So that stayed in a number of weeks and it just worked and was fine. Of course you have to drink during this time and a lot of people were loath to drink And you describe what sort of, how having a catheter at home affected your lifestyle? Not really very, very much because you can get up and about and it's, the bag is strapped to your shin, your lower leg and you just walk around as normal, it's hidden beneath the trousers and you just open the drain tube at the moment into the loo whenever it's nearly full And what about at night, how did you manage it at night? At night the bag goes into a frame standing on the floor just outside of the bed and you empty it obviously before you go to bed and next morning it will not be overflowing because it holds a tremendous amount. That's good. I can't remember how much it holds but it's a lot. Did the hospital provide this frame for holding the catheter or did you have to buy that? No, the hospital provided all the bags that you could want, but we bought the stand. I had to go back to have the catheter out on 10th October because it was a radical prostatectomy. And that was no problem coming out, I was a bit wary about that, because I didn't really know much about them, I didn't want to know about what was inside but they just, it's a bulb as you obviously know that's inside the bladder and it's filled with water and they just release that water so the bulb collapses and then they draw it out it's no problem at all.

Mail to a friend