Stephen

Age at interview: 62

Age at diagnosis: 60

Brief Outline:

Stephen had excruciating back pain which was dismissed as simply a back problem by his GP. Months later a hospital doctor arranged an x-ray and this and other tests resulted in diagnosis of prostate cancer metastasized to bones in November 2009. He has had radiotherapy and hormone treatment.

Background:

Stephen is a retired government lawyer, with male partner and one adult son. Ethnic background is White British.

More about me...

Stephen visited his GP in August 2009 with excruciating back pain and was given painkillers with the advice that it was just a back problem which “should sort itself out”. This advice continued with subsequent visits over three months with different doctors who thought an x-ray was unnecessary and that physiotherapy classes would be useful. At a regular hospital appointment for another condition he was sent for an x-ray the result of which prompted an MRI scan. Stephen was abroad when he got a phone call to say that he needed to return to the UK and go straight to hospital as the MRI scan showed that there was something seriously wrong and further tests should to be done immediately. These tests resulted in a diagnosis of metastasized prostate cancer in November 2009. He was told that his best treatment was hormone therapy and began to receive Zoladex but unfortunately he had a severe reaction to this treatment and it was replaced with Casodex. In addition he had a combination of morphine for the pain, and radiotherapy and steroids. He suffers few side effects with the worst of these being tender and enlarged breasts. He resigned from his part-time job after being diagnosed as he knew he would be off work for three or four months and expected that he wouldn’t have the same energy, interest and determination required for that particular work. Currently his prostate cancer has metastasized to his vertebrae, hips, ribs and abdomen. He is no longer on any painkillers, his PSA level is 0.06 and he feels the treatment is working. He didn’t, and still doesn’t, have any of the traditional symptoms that one may read of in the media and thinks perhaps if he had had those symptoms his GP might have considered giving him a PSA test which may have given him an earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer and saved him months of excruciating pain and reduced the damage to his skeleton.

 

Interview conducted in 2011 by Anne Montgomery.

Stephen's prostate cancer was diagnosed very late. His first symptom was back pain, due to metastases. His cancer had spread to his bones.

I went to my GP, I can remember the exact date, it was the 10^th August 2009, I woke up with the most excruciating back ache, back pain, and I couldn’t go to work, I went to the doctor and said “I’ve got this terrible pain”, and she said, “Oh, we’ll give you some painkillers and it should sort itself out”, that continued for a while, I went back to my doctor a number of times, during a three month period and saw different doctors, they all said the same, “You’ve just got back problem, it will sort itself out, just take painkillers, take the cheapest you can get”, and they kept on that it was just a muscular skeletal problem, I asked if I could have an x-ray and they said, “No, you don’t need an x-ray”. I was seeing another, hospital doctor, in connection with my cholesterol levels, and on a regular monitoring, I mentioned to him that I had this back pain, he said, “How are you?”, I said, “I’m fine except that I’ve got this back pain”, he said, “Oh, go and have an x-ray, it’s probably nothing but it’s worth having a look”, so he sent me for an x-ray, I had an x-ray, and he said, “Well it’s showing something, so I think you should have an MRI scan”, at this time, the thought of prostate hadn’t entered my head at all, because all I had was this absolutely excruciating back pain.

 

I had the MRI scan on the Saturday, on the Thursday before, I went to see my GP, and said that I was having the scan, and said, “Would you like to have a copy of it?”, and she said, “No, I don’t want to see it, I’m (going to) send you to the local cottage hospital to have, to go to a physiotherapy class”. On the Sunday I then went off to work in Romania, on the Tuesday, I got a call from the hospital, saying, “Can you please come in straight away, because we think there is something seriously wrong”, so I got a flight back to the UK, and went straight to the hospital, they admitted me immediately, they said, “Don’t go home, don’t go home, come straight from the airport, come straight in, because we’re very worried”, so I went in, and immediately they started tests, and after a few tests they said, “Well, we think you’ve got prostate problems, prostate cancer, we think it’s metastasised into the bones, we need to do biopsies, on your bones, and your prostate just to make sure”, they did that, and then I was diagnosed, that all happened towards the end of November 2009, so, I went to the hospital, as I was saying, I was in hospital, I had, I was diagnosed, and they started my treatment, and so because it’s metastasised into your bones, I’ve lost two vertebrae which have been completely replaced with tumours, it’s in my hips, it’s in my ribs, it’s in little bits of my abdomen. They said, “We think the best treatment for you is hormone therapy”.

At first Stephen was given Zoladex but he had a bad reaction to this hormone, so he was given Casodex instead. He was also given morphine, radiotherapy and steroids. Now he does not need pain killers and feels better.

I was given Zoladex, but unfortunately I had a bad reaction to that, the skin on my face started peeling off, and it looked horrible, I think it looked worse than it was, but it wasn’t very nice, so the hospital, came to the concl-, decided, after lots of discussion, that the risks of me continuing to take Zoladex was too great, they thought I could have an anaphylactic shock, which would have been pretty serious, so I’m now on bicalutamide (Casodex), I take that, one pill in the evening, which is fine, when I was first diagnosed, I had a very aggressive form of prostate cancer it seems, but the treatment is working at the moment, very well, my PSA level is down to 0.06, which is very good, so I keep taking the medicine, and that is where I am at the moment, I have a few side effects from the medication, they’re not serious, the worse is that I’ve grown, sort of breasts, which are very tender, and I find them embarrassing, I wouldn’t, I don’t want to go to a swimming pool, because I feel that I look odd, so… I keep my shirt on, and I wouldn’t want to take my shirt off, if I was say gardening in the front garden, I don’t want people to see, but apart from that, the treatment is working well, the side effects are very few, when I first started the treatment, because I had a combination of morphine for the pain, radiotherapy and steroids, I was very tired, but after a couple of months I came off the morphine, and I’m not on any painkillers now, and I don’t feel as tired as I did, I don’t think I feel any more tired than other people of my age, so I’m now at a stage where things have settled down, and hopefully for the foreseeable future I will just carry on taking the medicine, and hopefully, carry on living a pretty normal life.