Welcome to Update 11 of Gary’s cancer journey. In this heartfelt update, Gary shares a mix of hope and challenge: the great news is that his aggressive prostate cancer and bladder tumor have not spread, as confirmed by his recent scan at Gold Coast Radiology! However, the next step is significant—doctors recommend a radical prostatectomy, a major surgery to remove the entire prostate, requiring a five-day hospital stay. Gary is also scheduled for a colonoscopy this Tuesday to further investigate his bladder cancer.
What is a Radical Prostatectomy? A radical prostatectomy is a standard treatment for prostate cancer when the cancer is confined to the prostate. It involves removing the prostate gland and surrounding tissues to eliminate the cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, it’s often effective for localized prostate cancer, with recovery taking weeks to months. Possible side effects include urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction, but many men improve with time and rehabilitation.
Thank you for supporting Gary through this challenging time. Please like, share, and follow to stay updated on his journey.
00:00hi guys welcome to the latest update with Gary's health journey so I got a message yesterday from
00:12Gary because he just had his appointment with the team after the test to see whether the two cancers
00:18that he's got so prostate cancer and a low-grade bladder cancer have spread or metastasized and
00:24the title of Gary's textile was good and bad always good and bad no I know always good and bad the
00:32fantastic news this is fantastic news it has not spread so awesome news it is awesome news positive
00:43side it was really good to hear the doctor say that it's contained to the prostate yeah so that
00:48that is really good because obviously metastasized cancer is a little bit of a different ballgame so
00:53that was fantastic I was really happy to hear that so the bad news is that the doctor has said
00:59well Gary can tell you the different options in a moment but they're they're leaning towards the
01:04best option for Gary since it's an aggressive prostate tumor is to get the prostate removed
01:08so you know a lot of men facing this situation are obviously upset about this they're worried
01:17obviously then about long-term recovery and and what's going to happen sexual dysfunction all of
01:22that comes into into play but look the operations these days are getting better and better with
01:28things like nerve sparing surgery they do really good therapy therapeutic treatments as well so I think
01:37that it hasn't metastasized you know it's just fantastic news yeah it is for sure like we didn't want to go in there and the doctors first up say that it's spread to your bones and everything so
01:43that was good um so then he he went through the whole procedure getting it removed the the side effects everything which you know it's not too bad but there's always side effects it's a pretty serious operation yeah it's five days in hospital um so it's either remove it or you know it's not too bad but there's always side effects it's a pretty serious operation yeah it's five days in hospital um
02:13go for radiation therapy and stuff and if you take that option which is fine that's your choice but then if that doesn't work then you've got to go back to removing the prostate down the track and they can't do that straight away if you get radio therapy so
02:33it is an option but I agree with the doctors the best option if you've got a cancer contained get rid of that cancer so that's that's where we're heading in a couple of weeks back to hospital and get the prostate removed it was a bigger procedure though because Gary was telling me about the procedure I didn't realize that getting the prostate removed though I was sort of imagining like appendix or even ovaries if a woman's getting ovaries out it's more
03:01just removing the part but but Gary was explaining that because of a man's anatomy the prostate sort of sits in the middle of it's connected to the bladder and it's in the middle yeah so yeah you can't just remove it and stitch it up you've got to remove it and then join the parts back together and that's where the process of healing it takes a few weeks you've got to have a catheter in to drain the bladder for um two weeks up to two weeks two weeks yeah so that's
03:30not very good but but it's a part of the procedure you could that's to stop infection and everything because you can't just let the bladder fill fill up and why it's trying to heal it to start leaking and stuff so
03:42yeah so it is a it is a big deal it is it's yeah any sort of operation cancer that's a big deal but
03:51but this seemed to the operation of getting the prostate removed was a bigger deal than I expected
03:56yeah when you you don't sort of know yeah until something happens yeah and even if you know someone
04:03has had the procedure you don't go into the the details yeah unless you really know them but yeah so
04:13we're learning more all the time and yeah life goes on and and the good thing is if you get the
04:19prostate removed you don't have to go on any other therapies for now like no radiation therapy no hormone
04:25no that's a big possibility if they they remove it then they they do the test over a period of time
04:32and if there's nothing shows up yeah that's the end of it so that's good that's good but there is if they
04:38do find a little bit or something after it well then yeah you go to the other options so yeah yeah
04:46but look it's it's any out look you also dodged another bullet because what what else did the
04:53doctor say in terms of because Gary's got the two the bladder cancer and the prostate cancer they said a
05:01lot of men in Gary's situation also have the bladder removed at the same time but that's not gonna
05:08happen because yeah it's a bit more complicated because of the two have happened at the same time
05:14but because it was a low-grade cancer and they did remove it they thought that won't have to happen
05:20which was a thing because yeah that you know creates more dramas with you with everything in life
05:28so at this stage that's not happening so hopefully that never happens so so yeah prostate stick to that
05:37please well it's it's really good process and that that just goes to show prostate cancer is a very
05:43treatable cancer so that you know that it's not like um if you get diagnosed with prostate cancer
05:48it's not um usually something that you know um it's not that it's not as deadly as something like
05:56pancreatic cancer lung cancer ovarian cancer even yeah there's a lot of worse cancer but in saying that
06:02you still have to if you find that or any cancer early it is a big help lucky if you'd like I've
06:10said in that other videos if I didn't if I wasn't giving blood I've had no symptoms whatsoever so so
06:19if you're out there and think oh no I've had no symptoms it means nothing I've had nothing still
06:24don't have any symptoms yeah and if I wasn't given blood and they didn't find that I had a very low iron
06:29level and go and get a check I still wouldn't know to this day and then you find out too late
06:34and that's when any cancer if it's your family it can be not a good outcome I remember when we did
06:42that that video on and we spoke to that lady at the blood bank and she told us a story of a person I
06:49think they were diagnosed with lung cancer and they picked that up through the giving blood procedure and
06:54she said the giving blood literally saved his life because they've caught it early enough and I
06:59think there's probably a lot of them cases that you don't care about I think you might be in that
07:04same boat because if you've got no symptoms you're not feeling anything you know you don't feel sick
07:11anything you know I imagine sitting on it for a year or two and then it very well could have metastasized
07:18to bones lymph nodes and when this is one when you were talking to that person at the blood bank and
07:25they said that it was yeah we would wow that's so interesting didn't realize that I could be there
07:31in the same position so yeah you never know so even giving blood doesn't only help other people to
07:38survive it can help yourself survive so it really can isn't that the best life lesson ever they're doing
07:45something good for someone else or for the greater good is also going to benefit you it just goes full
07:51circle it's such a good story we should actually do a separate thing just on that like yeah that is
07:57interesting isn't it yeah treat people good and good can come back to you so yeah a good life lesson
08:03and there you are booked in for another procedure so the same team has also then booked Gary in for a
08:12colonoscopy next week yeah on Tuesday and so that's just um to stay on top of the bladder cancer because
08:20there's I mean I don't know I'm not medically trained and the doctor that spoke to Gary yesterday
08:26wasn't actually aware even of the colonoscopy so he's sort of being treated by a team with different
08:32specialists for different things because he does have the duo the two yeah but I did look it up actually
08:37and it was interesting another common duo when you've got bladder cancer is the very is the
08:43possibility of colorectal cancer so I assume that they're just really leaving no one's going unturned
08:49and that's what he said doing a thorough trip it's just being thorough yeah just a check which is yeah
08:55the best it is the best we are very lucky so yeah so good health care yeah we have got good health care
09:02and it makes you feel good when you go to see them and they they go through the whole thing and and
09:07teach you know let you know what's going on so yeah so off to hospital again and get this horrible
09:16prostate removed so we'll just we'll definitely keep you updated and um and you know stay tuned for the
09:24journey because it's like any health thing like my teeth that we're also following my dental journey
09:29everything's a journey isn't it like so as you get older so I'm actually really grateful to you
09:37Gary for sharing this because I do think it's very relevant for a lot of other people that would be
09:43going through this exact same journey and I think that there's just a lot of hope to be taken away from
09:48that that catch it early it hasn't metastasized and it's at a treatable stage so we go from there
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