My prostate cancer and brachytherapy treatment

My name is Erman. I was born in Basilicata. I worked in a chemical industry for about 35 years.

At the age of 25, I married a girl who... I'd seen grow up near where I lived. She was really beautiful. We spent... 48 years together. I had two children with her. Annalucia and Giampiero. They too are happily married and... Annalucia has twin girls who are... my life now.

Until two years ago, with all my ailments I managed to soldier on. One day... my doctor, from a blood test, found that there was something that wasn't good at all and that was the PSA. It was at 13. She immediately sent me to the hospital, to the urologist. And... the doctor who examined me asked for a biopsy right away on my prostate, because he thought something was wrong. When the result arrived... my whole world collapsed.

"[The surgeon said:] I can't operate you, "I can't help you, "because you wouldn't survive the operation" You can imagine how I felt. He gave me some hope, though.

After the examination he [the interventional radiation oncologist] told me... there was something they could do, and so I took heart from this. He performed the operation which was a brachytherapy procedure. Something I'd never heard of before then.

The day of the brachytherapy arrived. My heart full of hope... But very scared. So... when the doctor who performed the operation... reassured me that everything was going well, I was reborn. I'd never heard of brachytherapy before then.

A few days after the brachytherapy, I already felt better, apart from some... a little discomfort in urinating, etcetera, etcetera, but... I already felt much better, but mostly I felt relaxed and I was happy to have got back to a normal life.

That's why I... I don't hide that I want to encourage anyone who... suffers from the same illness as me... I'd like to encourage them to use brachytherapy, because, in my opinion, it was the therapy... that perhaps is the least invasive, according to my research on the subject.

And so all I have to say to anyone suffering from this disease is to find someone who deals with brachytherapy because you will come out of it happy... as happy as I am.

Back to Real Stories - Erman