The journey starts

Men: GET YOUR PSA LEVEL CHECKED!!!!

Hey, another boring middle aged bloke who is going to bang on about his prostate, how dreadfully unfair life can be, what it is like to be a victim...................? NO!

I hope that over the coming months this will serve as something useful for anyone else who has to go through something similar, and particularly those who use the NHS in Medway. I will document what happens, who the key people are, give some feedback on how easy (or difficult?) it is to take control over things and, for people using Medway Maritime Hospital, as many shortcuts to the people who make decisions as I can find. Hints will be in blue, important info, in red.

I used to work for the NHS, my partner used to run a major hospital in London and we know a lot of people still on the "inside", so I have a pretty good idea what the problems might be. We shall see.

Partners, significant others, lovers and friends might also like to take a look, or you might like to share some of the posts with them (I will warn if there are any that are not "partner friendly"!)

like most men, I gave virtually no thought thought to my prostate apart from the obvious. As long as it was still working and not causing me any bother, why should I bother it? Then a friend was diagnosed with prostate cancer and asked me when I last had my PSA level checked. It had never crossed my mind.

Breezed nto GP, asked for a PSA test and was told "no chance", you do not have any symptoms. Made a couple up and........hey presto!.........PSA done. Came back as way too high, so off I went on the magical NHS journey with Medway Hospital

Important bit of info
The NHS has some target times when cancer is suspected; this is the first. From GP referral to first appointment with a specialist must happen within 2 weeks.

1 week and 6 days later, in the evening, I saw the Registrar (bottom of the Dr heap). Clinic not signposted and no-one at main reception desks to ask. Hint: walk down random corridors shouting "hello". Produced a lovely nurse who helped me find the hidden clinic.

........and so to a biopsy 2 weeks later and promised the result in another 2. Will spare you the details; if you want the lowdown on this one, let me know.

3 weeks later, no word from the hospital, called them and emailed them: not a lot back. Got GP to ask for a copy of the results direct from the lab. They were put in the post to the GP immediately. Magically an appointment letter from the hospital arrived 24 hours later.
Hint: your GP can be your friend

If you do not want to know how to tell whether you have been diagnosed with cancer before you see the consultant, skip the next bit............

The letter has a code on it for who you will be seeing. In my case it said "MDT" which is short for multi-discipinary team. These are the folk who look after people with cancer.

Another week goes by...........

4 weeks after the biopsy........Meeting with consultant Dr Bhat  (going up the Dr heap) and "Clinical Nurse Specialist for Urological Cancer" . Despite telling them that I knew the diagnosis, both insisted on sticking to their scripts. Tedious, but maybe it is thereapy for them or they get their knuckes rapped if they do not; who knows? One thing neither of them knew though was the national target for treating people with cancer:

Important info
Hospitals have a 62 day target between the GP referring and treatment starting for people with cancer

To get to Professor Sheriff (top of the Dr heap) and the Oncologist, MRI and Bone Scan next. Easy? Nope. Took several phone calls from me to get these organised in time for the Great Man's team meeting after which he may offer me an appointment. For info, it is now Day 59 and still no treatment plan in sight, let alone treatment starting. Oops, big fail by Medway Hospital!