Ken – Interview 40

Ken was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002. He received radiotherapy as the cancer wasn’t operable. He now sees his GP for his PSA tests, but does not currently receive his test results. He feels lucky to have survived cancer.

Ken was diagnosed with prostate cancer 8 years ago. He was experiencing a trapped nerve in his arm, and his GP did a routine blood test which showed a high PSA level. He found it a bit of a shock at the time. Ken found it funny that he got lots of choices about treatments for prostate cancer and it seemed that the consultants weren’t really sure what the best course of action was. He talked to his brother in law who had prostate cancer too, who advised him to go for radiotherapy. He had 30 days of radiotherapy, which led to him feeling a bit sick and experiencing some hot flushes

When Ken was seeing his consultant for his cancer follow-up, he used to be told his PSA levels. Nowadays, he only sees his GP for his blood tests, but isn’t told what his PSA level is, and doesn’t receive a letter stating the test result. He would like to receive a letter from his GP just with the test result so he knows if the level is going up or down.

Ken thinks he’s been really lucky in his experience. He was never that upset about getting cancer, and thought it was something in life that you have to get over. His message to other people is to just make the best of what you’ve got.

Eight years after having radiotherapy for prostate cancer Ken has to pass urine more than once…

Age at interview 73

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 65

I still have trouble in the morning, I go to the toilet and it feels like I’ve got to go again, that always happens, that’s in the morning. I don’t know why that is, even when they were testing me afterwards I still found that it’s still, I’ve never emptied my bladder. There’s always something there.

And that’s been continuous has it?

That’s continuous. That’s still doing it, so they haven’t cleared that up.

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