John's brachytherapy story

My diagnosis

I was shocked when I was told I have prostate cancer. I didn’t have any of the symptoms you hear about, and I was generally very healthy. It was totally unexpected.

I'd had mild stomach pains for a while so booked an appointment at my GP. The nurse felt my stomach and decided to arrange a blood test. The blood test looked at a lot of different things, including my PSA level. When the results came back, my PSA level was 10.7, so things sort of snowballed from there. I then had an MRI scan and biopsy that confirmed I had prostate cancer.

At the time I felt sort of cheated of my future. But I think the worst moment was waiting for the bone scan results after my biopsy. I wanted to know - could this cancer be cured or not? So I was thrilled when I got the results back saying my cancer hadn’t spread to the bones - that was brilliant.

Deciding on a treatment

At first, I tried making decisions on my own. This was partly because I didn't want to totally and truly admit what was happening. But my wife insisted on coming to appointments with me, and she was an amazing help. I wasn't really taking in what was said to me, so it made it hard to think things through and make rational decisions. My wife was able to help me take a step back and talk through the appointment with me. She also persuaded me to talk to the Prostate Cancer UK Specialist Nurses. They gave me lots of useful information and it was great to just talk things through with someone who understood.

I was told I could have surgery, or radiotherapy with hormone therapy. I went away really not knowing what to do. I think probably the hardest bit was making that choice between the two treatment paths. But I read up on both treatments and found out as much as I could about the side effects. I also joined Prostate Cancer UK’s online forum, reading people's stories and asking questions on there as well. All of that helped me decide to go down the radiotherapy path.

Then, two days before I was meant to start my external beam radiotherapy, the hospital called me in and said they thought I should have external beam radiotherapy with a high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy boost. I liked the fact that it was targeted, so I agreed to it. I started my treatment with all the information I needed, and happy with my choice – I actually felt quite relaxed by the time I had brachytherapy.

My treatment

I started hormone therapy a few months before my external beam radiotherapy, and I’ll have to stay on it for another year. I had 15 sessions of radiotherapy over four weeks and then had three weeks to recover before my brachytherapy boost treatment.

Once I knew I was going to have radiotherapy, I made some lifestyle changes. I quit caffeine and alcohol and I avoided spicy foods. I had daily enemas (putting a capsule into the back passage to help empty it) before each radiotherapy session so I got quite used to them by the time I started by brachytherapy boost.

My hospital suggested I to go on a low fibre diet three or four days before my brachytherapy session. At the time, this seemed to be a list cutting out everything I wanted to eat! The night before my brachytherapy, I didn’t eat anything and was at the hospital at 7am for my treatment. When I woke up from the procedure, the doctor said I could leave once they knew I could wee and there was no fresh blood in my urine. So I drank as much as I possibly could to make myself wee as soon as possible. Everything was fine and they sent me home around 2pm.

My brachytherapy session was well timed – I had it on Thursday, so took the Thursday and Friday off work. After the weekend, I was feeling well enough to go out, as long as I took it easy. Then it was Christmas, so I had the whole of the Christmas period to recover. I was glad for that because I was definitely not well enough to work for a week or so.

My side effects

During external beam radiotherapy, I had diarrhoea, although I'm not sure if that was because of the treatment or the daily enemas I was doing.

After my brachytherapy, I also had looser bowels. This seemed to gradually get worse in the first month after the treatment, and then got better after. I also had some fatigue, but it wasn’t too bad. I spent the first couple of days on the sofa not really doing much other than watching TV. A few weeks after my brachytherapy, I was up between two and four times in the night to go for a wee. But that settled down, and now I feel generally back to normal.

Hormone therapy has affected me the most. The main thing is that I have erectile dysfunction and a lack of libido. I saw a nurse specialist about it, and he prescribed Tadalafil and a vacuum pump, which have definitely helped.

Since being on hormone therapy, I feel more tired (fatigue). I've found keeping active helps and I’m going to bed a lot earlier than I used to. I find it harder to concentrate at work, especially in the afternoons. Taking a walk in my lunch time has helped to distance me from work for half an hour and have that mental break. It helps to bring energy levels up a bit too. Luckily, my bosses have been very flexible and supportive, so it’s something I’ve not had to worry about, which has helped enormously.

The hormone therapy injections have also made me gain weight and lose muscle, and I have some joint pain. Emotionally, it’s been upsetting and has got me very down at times. I’ve seen my body changing and it feels beyond my control. It feels like it happened so fast and like my masculinity has been taken away. Knowing that the hormone therapy will come to an end has kept me going. I hope that once it’s finished I will go back to how I was before treatment. I’ve written all my treatment dates on a blackboard in our kitchen – it is really satisfying crossing them off!

Exercise has really helped me cope with the side effects of hormone therapy. My wife and I go for daily walks - short ones during the week and then longer ones at the weekend. We’ve found this quite therapeutic, not just physically and mentally, but it also gives us time to talk and just spend time together.

Where I am now and what's next

Most of the time I feel fine, although the hormone therapy is grinding me down slowly. But I do think there’s good that's come out of being diagnosed with cancer. I have more appreciation for life. We now focus more on having good family time. Before, we would put things off, but now we make the effort to find time to do the things we want to do.

I think we are all in quite a good place now and not taking things for granted. There's very much life after brachytherapy. Yes, there are worries and fears about side effects, but they're not necessarily as bad as you imagine they're going to be. And once your treatment is done, you can get on with life and just do the things you want to do.

Created: August 2025