To continue the cancer story...........

After reading the Macmillan booklet and quizzing medics about options, the treatments on offer were; first of all, no treatment (monitoring only), sometimes called 'watchful waiting' this option is usually offered to older men or those not fit enough for treatments such as radiotherapy  or surgery and who have a slow-growing prostate cancer that is unlikely to affect their natural life span.  Active surveillance is a 'wait and see' process for low-grade early-stage prostate cancer, these cancers are usually very slow growing and may never cause any symptoms, for this reason some specialists advise waiting to see if there is any progression of the cancer before starting any treatment.  Radiotherapy uses a high power x-ray beam aimed at the tumour and is carried out over several weeks.  Surgery involves an operation known as a radical prostatectomy in which the complete prostate gland is removed.  Brachytherapy, also called internal radiotherapy, implant therapy or seed implantation is carried out by inserting small radioactive metal 'seeds' into the tumour so that radiation is released slowly over a period of time.  Hormonal therapy may be given on its own as a treatment or as an addition to radiotherapy, it may also be used at a later stage in prostate cancer progression, more of that later though.
The booklet I was given contains a lot more detail than is covered here and is only one of many produced by the Macmillan Cancer Support charity (www.macmillan.org.uk).

After some dark days, much reading, soul searching and talking with two friends in the medical profession I had come to a decision.  The fact that these two friends were surgeons may give a clue to the direction my treatment was heading.