Gobsmacked...

Last Wednesday was not a good day. My volume study to map out my prostate for the seed implantation was scheduled for 8:30 AM, so I showed up at the doctor's office at about twenty after. The door was locked, but there was activity inside, so I figured their practice was to not open the door early. My wife took the day off, so we just chatted outside - it was a lovely morning. 8:35 rolled around, and noone had opened the door yet. I tried it just to make sure, but it was still locked. Five more minutes, and nothing. I jiggled it very strongly so that it would be heard, and the receptionist came to the door.

Turns out it was the wrong doctor! I was supposed to be at the hospital with the radiation oncologist, not in the office with the urologist. What a putz! They graciously called for me to let the doctor know I was on the way, and we zoomed up to the hospital, which luckily isn't far. The doctor was still willing to see me, so I put on my robe, put my feet up in the stirrups and thought of the empire, trying to calm myself down.

When the test was done, the doctor quipped that that had just been the trial run, and that the real test would start shortly with the big probe! I meekly said "OK" while my wife started laughing.

Unfortunately, the test showed that my prostate is very slightly masked by the pubic bone, which means it would be very difficult to correctly place the implants. Consequently, the doctor told me I would need to start hormone therapy to shrink the prostate a bit so that the bone would no longer be in the way. I asked if there would be any permanent effects, and he replied "not usually."

As I thought about this during the course of the day, I started to get more and more upset. After all, hormone therapy (and its associated impotence and loss of libido) was something I had been trying to avoid. Perhaps I wanted to reconsider my course of treatment.

The appointment for the injection was the next morning, but I didn't want anything to happen without talking to the urologist first. I had not been thinking clearly enough the day before, and had come up with several questions in the meantime. The doctor graciously took me into his office, and addressed all my concerns. With a sense of relief, I got my shot of anti-testosterone. I get another one next month, and a repeat volume study in July.