More diary

Late 2006 got to be pretty panicky after an initial period of disbelief that I was ill. I looked around at other options while medical options seemed limited and almost unobtainable. I trawled the health shelves in the book stores.
I bought and started reading Prostate Health in 90 Days by Larry Clapp. However, this book seemed too extreme (cleansing my body through only drinking lemon juice and sunning my genital area in the backyard around 10 minutes a day) and I was unsure about the author given his lack of qualifications. I do think this book contains some good ideas. For example, I now drink lots of lemon juice after being advised to do so by my current naturopath. The book also advises a good exercise program, which I also follow.
Far more influential for me was Ron Gellatley's book How to Fight Prostate Cancer and Win. I studied this book in detail and made a list of all the recommended supplements. Gellatley, like Clapp, had prostate cancer and cured himself. I accessed the supplements he recommended and his meditation tape via an Internet site. Gellatley helped me get through this very difficult period.
I now see a naturopath I can trust and rely on a healthy lifestyle as well as supplements. I think one of the reasons she is so good is that her father had prostate cancer and she has done a lot of research on it. That personal connection is so important.
I should also mention the efforts of my Christian friends. My neighbour is a a good Catholic woman and she organised that I would be mentioned in parayers at her church plus I was placed on the list of people prayed for around the world with the Legion of Mary ladies. I also had a number of meetings with the Reverend Darren Lovell of the Uniting Church where he listened to my anguish and all my complaints against God and the medical fraternity and said prayers for for my well being. Darren and I had worked together as social workers at Centrelink in other lives. I owe all these people so much.
Anyway, back to the diary:
Friday, 11 August 2006: Dr W, the Urologist, said he thought that the cancer had gone too far for surgery and that my best chance was high dose brachytherapy, only available at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). He said that his secretary would make the necessary appointment with Dr Y. He also said that I should start treatment within the next 30 days. I should have been suspicious because he also said the same thing when he phoned me on the 31st of July. Dr W's secretary said it was too late to make the appointment and she said that she'd do it on Monday.
Monday, 14 August 2006: Dr W's secretary phoned to say that the earliest appointment with Dr Y at the RAH was not until 2:10pm on Wednesday, 6 September. She promised to check with Dr W that this was not too long away.
Wednesday, 16 August 2006: P/c from RAH Radiology Reception saying that Dr Y was not available on the 6 September, there'd been a mistake. She offered me the next available appointment on 20 September.
The phone call came while I was on a full bus. I had to speak loudly to be heard. I stated that the matter was more urgent. But the woman said she'd still not even received the referral from Dr W's secretary. Then I was offered an appointment with Dr P on Thursday, 5 September.
P/c to Dr W's secretary to plead with her to send the referral. She said the thought she had. She also said that she would email Dr W to see if the new time frame was acceptable. She phoned back after a couple of days to say that he thought that this was okay.
9am Tuesday, 5 September: At RAH for my appointment with Dr P, a nurse told me that Dr P would not see me because the consultants had divided up tasks and Prof Y was doing the high dose brachytherapy. Prof Y was not available and so she was going to ask the registrar, Dr Wan, to see me so that my visit was not wasted. The registrar was not keen to see me and there was an argument as evidenced in the rising voice of the nurse on the phone.
The nurse took some basic information but otherwise nothing happened until after midday when it was suggested that I go and get some lunch and come back after 2pm to meet up with the registrar.
When I finally saw Dr Wan he was apologetic, apologising that this was not his normal outpatients' time. He extolled the virtues of high dose brachytherapy and pleased me by even suggesting I should store my semen in case I wanted to have children after the procedure. Initially he appeared harried, but after a short time he was more laid back and took his time with me. His full name was Dr Wan Mohd Nazri Wan Zunion. He was cheerful and rather overwight and appeared genuinely friendly, giving me his card and inviting me to phone if I had a concern.
I felt he was doing his best on my behalf. He organised a urine flow rate and volume estimation test and booked me to have an MRI done privately. He told me that if I waited to have it done publicly then I would be waiting a couple of months. (Pity the poor buggers relying solely on the public system.) The urine test was in the main part of the hospital. I was told to drink plenty before the appointment. Dr Wan also organised an appointment for me to see Dr Y on 20 September.
9:30am Wednesday, 6 September: Friendly nurse, lousy area. I was running late so I had not drunk as much as I should have for their measuring the flow rate of my urine. I was sat in a corridor behind the large reception area and in front of a fridge. I was then invited to drink cold bottles of water and cordial from the fridge, which I did over the next hour.
Nurses came and went, other people came and sat beside me but not for the same purpose. An older man from the country claimed he had gone to his local hospital for a minor complaint. He said an accident happened in his treatment, which involved some organ being punctured. He was then sent to his regional hospital where he caught an infection and had now been transferred to Adelaide. He seemed philosophical about his now apparently terminal fate, not holding out much hope that he'd ever go home.
I had a long wait before I felt that I had a full bladder but when it came it was urgent. I think I must have drunk 5 or 6 litres. I desperately sought out my nurse and she took me to a little cubicle another corridor away. The pain from my bladder was acute.
I was instructed to urinate into a funnel attached to a hose which was further attached to a machine that printed out the rate I peed. The friendly nurse had left the room. Later she showed me the chart. I was a bit deflated when she told me that when I was younger there would not have been such a petering out with the flow. I had wanted to impress partly for male pride and partly to ensure I got into the program. Later Dr Y told me my urine flow rate was good.
I thought that volume estimate on my original referral had meant volume of urine and that the tests were over, but the friendly nurse assured me that this was not so, I had to come back to have a sensor placed up my back passage as had occurred at the original biopsy.
I walked home from the city (about an hour) and thought that I would do this every day I had the external beam radiation Dr Wan had told me I would have in addition to the high dose brachytherapy.
Thursday, 7 September 2006: Elizabeth and I went to see the skin specialist for our moles. (The original reason I had been to the GP in mid June that led to the prostate cancer diagnosis had been to get this referral. This doctor wanted to cut our a couple of growths, one on each arm.