前立腺がん患者の語り

Can you tell other people what it's like to have a biopsy in as much detail as possible.

Unpleasant because you have, it's... you have a tube, it's a tube that goes up your rectum and they take a bit of the prostate away and it's an unpleasant feeling until the end, and that is painful to the end, but that's again only a minute and they were very good. The doctor or technician I don't know who did this, because they said 'When you feel the pain we'll then stop and then you can get yourself ready for the last bit,' and they actually said to me 'because it will be painful.' But it's you know it's a quick pain and then it's all over, but they were very, again the person who did it was very thoughtful because they understand what it's like.

Yes, every month I have the full dose of chemotherapy and in the middle of the month a fortnight, the 2 week period, I go back for what they call booster. Now I've had none of those boosters because my blood cells, my white blood cells reading has been very unsatisfactory and that's, they say that's what's been causing my bad breathing etc so they've cancelled that. And then last week they actually cancelled the chemo, the full treatment, the full one because they still were not happy and then I've got to go back again next week, to have more blood tests, to see if I can continue or not.

So what's it actually like having the chemotherapy?

There is no problem with that, it's just you have two, you have a tube inserted, a needle put in your arm for the tube, and then you have two syringe loads of chemo go in through that which the nurse does, then you have anti sickness put into there as well in the liquid form, you then have another one put in because I'm having what they call a cocktail of chemo, have another one which makes them all join together and then the last one I have is a bag which they do from a drip which I think most people understand is just a bag with a drip which takes about an hour. The main thing is to remember always take a Walkman with you or books or papers because you're there for 5 hours.

And how did that make you feel?

That didn't worry, didn't affect me at all while I was doing that because I can, I'm easy get absorbed in books or listen to the radio or whatever but the side-effects afterwards have been, well horrendous as far as I'm concerned.

Can you say a bit more.

Yes my breathing has got worse and I can only walk 50 metres, sometimes and I just have to stop.

You think that's a result of the chemotherapy?

They say yeah, they say it is, they, they think it is. The last time they think it is but it should've cleared up but they've given me, I've had scans, CCT scans they call it, I've had breathing tests and it shows nothing at all. So I have to wait till next week again for them to see if I have the chemo again or what, whatever they decide.

Did the chemotherapy make you feel sick at all or did the anti sickness drugs work?

No the anti sickness, they give you pills afterwards as well and I had no sickness at all. I've had the breathing and also I think it's affected my digestive system because I get bad stomach pains and headaches. The headache always coincides with the stomach, which is most headaches come from your stomach I believe and they coincide, but the pain in the stomach makes you die, it is bad. But that goes after a couple of hours, it reaches a peak. As far as I'm concerned having the chemo itself, the actual practical side of it there's no problem to it at all, there's no pain or anything.

And have the side-effects of the chemo been about what you expected?

No it's a lot worse than I expected.

Hygiene is unbelievable now from 8 years ago it was good the last time I was in hospital, well the last few times I've been it's unbelievable. You get like you get blood on the floor round your bed, not yours. The worst I've, the worst, well I was just, you just lay in bed like you touch the metal frame of the bed and I thought oh what's that chewing gum and it wasn't it was just dried blood. Another time [laughs] I remember recently was in your night bag they come and empty it at night and obviously they spilt some and I got out of bed and I'd just worn, my bare feet was in my urine on the floor.

Oh dear

But this is, that is hygiene and you just sit, you just lay in your bed and watch them clean, it's just if there's a chair they don't clean and move the chair, they just go round the chair. This is my experience.

So you think things have got worse in hospital, in the hospitals?

Yes 8 years ago, yes there's no comparison the last, you know that gap of that 6 years what's happened I don't know.