• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

The Big C

Woodbloke

Woodbloke

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I've had a 'waterworks issue' for some time and over the last couple of years, it gradually got a bit worse. SWIMBO marched me off to the doctors for a looksee some time in June and to cut a long story sideways I was diagnosed with a 'mild' form of Prostate Cancer on 02 Aug, which was detected early and which was also completely self-contained within the gland, so it hadn't gone walkabout.
On Tuesday of this week (13th Sept) I had robot assisted (Google 'da Vinci surgical robot' :shock: ) keyhole surgery to remove the cancerous prostate, which provides a 100% cure. This was done under the NHS at the private Spire hospital in Southampton, but at the same time the consultant also repaired my umbilical hernia, so I've had a BOGOF offer on the NHS :D
Now in full recovery and clear of cancer...using a catheter at the moment which is coming out next Thurs and then it's 'wee pads' for a while to control the leakage. No heavy lifting for at least six weeks and no 'shop work either, but Ax have said I can have all the time off I need to make a full recovery. Onwards and upwards :D - Rob
 
Sorry to hear that, Rob, but pleased about the outcome.

You're not alone with prostate stuff.

All the best.

Malcolm
 
Oh dear Rob, welcome to the "C" club, glad the operation went well.
Sadly my cancer reseeded itself and I've just finished 12wks of chemo and 1 wk of 5 wks of daily Radiotherapy.
If I'm "lucky" to be followed later by a major op?
Thankfully the zapping is a lot more pleasant than the poisoning [emoji3]
Take it easy.

Rod
 
Rod":1fahkn7g said:
Oh dear Rob, welcome to the "C" club, glad the operation went well.
Sadly my cancer reseeded itself and I've just finished 12wks of chemo and 1 wk of 5 wks of daily Radiotherapy.
If I'm "lucky" to be followed later by a major op?
Thankfully the zapping is a lot more pleasant than the poisoning [emoji3]
Take it easy.

Rod
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Sorry to hear that Rod, hope all goes well and you can get rid of it completely - Rob
 
Glad to hear you've had a good outcome, Rob.

I do have to confess that were I to contract cancer then I'd refuse treatment and go on a bloody great binge...I've had a full life, no kids, the missus is independent enough so why go through all the side-effects of the various treatments? I take my hat of to you guys who do do this.
 
9fingers":lg1kh3nq said:
All the best to you both!!

Bob
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Ditto.

I lost my father to lung cancer after a life of smoking. I've never even tried a cigarette so hopefully I'll avoid that one. Does cross your mind though sometimes...
 
Prostate removal : been there, done that - 2003. So far no signs of a recurrence. Mine was quite advanced, the alternatives were :

  • Have the surgery
    Do nothing and die from it in around 10yrs

Looks like I made the right choice.

Good luck with the recovery.
 
Rob, must have been a stressful time for Alyson and your kids as well. We are glad the outcome is good even though I guess you will be bored stiff in no time.

I have regular checks as both brother and father have had minor ops like yours.

Best wished to you both. Don't rush the recovery. My brother did and paid for it.

Kind regards
 
Thanks for all your messages of support chaps, much appreciated. Alyson's got a couple of weeks off to look after me hand and foot :D which do make a nice change but once she's gone back to work I'm going to be bored rigid! I have to get plenty of exercise so some of the day will be spent outside walking up and down the road. No rest for the wicked! - Rob
 
Rob and Rod , I cant begin to imagine what this must have been like , makes my problems with osteoarthritis seem rather insignifigant . Hope you get through it all and make a full recovery .

All the best
Steve
 
tracerman":1u2cffzv said:
Rob and Rod , I cant begin to imagine what this must have been like , makes my problems with osteoarthritis seem rather insignifigant . Hope you get through it all and make a full recovery .

All the best
Steve
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When the choices are placed in front of you Steve, the decisions are very easy to make. I know that I instantly wanted to go for the op to 'get rid', even though they offered me alternatives which I thought weren't so good in my particular case - Rob
 
Woodbloke":1us0cv8i said:
Andyp":1us0cv8i said:
..... have had minor ops like yours.

Kind regards
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Andy, the op was 4+ hrs :shock: long and was major, not minor surgery - Rob
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Oh er! Sorry about that. :oops:

Take it easy and make the most of the care and attention.
 
Andyp":32xuvmuo said:
Woodbloke":32xuvmuo said:
Andyp":32xuvmuo said:
..... have had minor ops like yours.

Kind regards
Click to expand...
Andy, the op was 4+ hrs :shock: long and was major, not minor surgery - Rob
Click to expand...

Oh er! Sorry about that. :oops:

Take it easy and make the most of the care and attention.
Click to expand...

But he was asleep for most of it !! :lol:
 
RogerS":1btc688s said:
But he was asleep for most of it !! :lol:
Click to expand...

What's slightly scary is that I had to walk into theatre, fully wide awake, whereupon I was instructed to hop onto the operating table and make myself 'comfy', all the time looking at the da Vinci surgical robot lurking in the corner like Shelob the Spider from Lord of the Rings. Once the cannulas for saline and anaesthetic were inserted I was out and came round in recovery 4+ hours later. Two hours :shock: after that I was sitting up in a chair and the same evening I went on my first walk round the ward - Rob
 
Blimey, Rob, that's an ordeal. Do as the doctors tell you, and I hope all goes well with your recovery.
 
Rob & Rod, sorry to hear about your problems, speedy recovery and hope the big 'C' can be treated/cured and goes away.

I remember with my first kidney stone 41 years ago, the urologist said that the biggest problem with the prostrate as you get older is the lack of 'exercise' for the prostrate which could add to the possibility of Cancer. :o
 
Thanks for your kind wishes.
I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in March 2014 and operated on it April using keyhole surgery to remove the tumour and create a temporary Ileostomy. The Ileostomy was reversed 3 months later
Like Rob I walked to the theatre, well in my case the Anaesthetists room adjacent and was knocked out for 7 ½ hrs.
I was in hospital for 2wks and when let home was not allowed to drive or lift anything heavier than a cup of coffee for another 6wks. That's when it got really frustrating !
There then followed several check-up clinics, blood tests every 3months and annual scans.
Last September the blood test showed a slight rise in the cancer markers and this January the test had reached the stage where further investigations were required. After several scans, Examinations under Anaesthetic and biopsies it was confirmed my cancer had returned.
I am fortunate in that I was referred to one of the few consultants specialising in my problems - there's only 3 hospitals in the country carrying out this procedure - one of them is Southampton General.
When given the options, it was not that difficult a decision to go down the path I'm now part way through. My wife and family are very supportive and definitely don't want me to throw in the towel.
During the chemo and radiotherapy sessions you meet dozens and dozens of people going through similar procedures, stoically, patiently, calmly and even cheerfully.
I've been treated both at Winchester and Southampton and the medical staff have all been great - very caring, hard working and a tremendous example of how our NHS should be.

Rod
 
Rob - glad to see it all went well matey and do as you're told to ensure recovery.

Rod - sorry to hear you're back under treatment, be strong and hope you beat it back down again soon.

Best to both of you.

Cheers
Mark
 
Rob, just fell over this thread when researching something else; sorry Mate, didn't know. What everybody else said, with knobs on. My missus, Meggie, was diagnosed early June with a massive (10cm x 12cm) abdominal tumour and just like you, has major surgery; radiotherapy is pending etc etc. My personal best wishes to you and Alyson. Our experience so far is that the waiting: waiting for slots to come available to see specialists, waiting for blood tests, waiting for consultants to interpret scans, has such a significant effect mentally that its impact well-nigh eclipses the physical trauma. Good Luck my friend. Rooting for you.

Rod, I've met Rob, so I feel I know him a little more than you good self, that's why I addressed the above to him, but my sentiments apply equally strongly to you, especially as Meggie's situation more closely resembles yours. You got it spot on about the people you meet on this journey, the stoicism, the calm courage, the strength to weather it and go on. To you, I also express my understanding, sympathy and strongest best wishes for a full recovery.

Our experience is, there are many 'bumps in the road' and every journey is different. Hang in there.

Sam
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q!":145nbx3m said:
Rob, just fell over this thread when researching something else; sorry Mate, didn't know. What everybody else said, with knobs on. My missus, Meggie, was diagnosed early June with a massive (10cm x 12cm) abdominal tumour and just like you, has major surgery; radiotherapy is pending etc etc. My personal best wishes to you and Alyson. Our experience so far is that the waiting: waiting for slots to come available to see specialists, waiting for blood tests, waiting for consultants to interpret scans, has such a significant effect mentally that its impact well-nigh eclipses the physical trauma. Good Luck my friend. Rooting for you.

Sam
Click to expand...

Many thanks, much appreciated. There are many different types of Prostate Cancer but in my case the op to remove the gland (Robot Assisted Radical Prostatectomy) resulted in a guaranteed cure. I had the histology results last week and I'm 100% clear of cancer as well as being well on the way to a total recovery, so much so in fact, that I'm back at Axminster this week for a half day :D - Rob
 
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