The waiting

Its been a few weeks since my first attempt so I had best update the situation and then see if anyone is reading this! I hope so because what is happening to me needs to be understood by others, so that they can take the preventative action earlier than I did.
I had my biopsy on schedule. It wasn't pleasant but neither was it of any real concern. Then I waited. And waited. It took another 3 weeks before I saw the consultant again to be told that I do have a tumour. It is graded a 7 on the Gleeson scale (4+3) which means it is on the high end of moderately aggressive. My PSA is now 21. I was immediately put onto hormone therapy and scheduled for a bone scan, which will determine whether the cancer has already spread to my bones. Remember, the original referral was because I complained of back ache! I was told that the bone scan would be done within around 2 weeks, but was actually called in 2 days later.
Now I am waiting for the results of this scan and this will determine just how far this has progressed, what the treatment will be and how long I am likely to live. If there is no metastatis to the bone then the homone therapy will probably be replaced by radiotherapy directly on the prostate to kill the cancer cells and I could live for a lot longer. If it has spread.....well I read that only 30% of men survive another 5 years, it cannot be "cured" and the treatment becomes pallitive.
So my life is on hold whilst I wait. We cannot progress with our planned part time move to our lovely new house on the beach in the tropics, and because of the NHS rules on the treatment of Brits living abroad, may never be able to. We were planning to move our UK location to either Devon or Dorset and were due to start house hunting, but have had to suspend that for the time being.
The first indication something was wrong was 3 years ago, when due to a poor urine flow an enlarged prostate was diagnosed and eventually I had a "TURPS", which reduces its size. At no time was cancer suggested or my PSA checked. This was always classified as a benign enlargement, something which was pretty normal for a man of my age. It now seems pretty obvious that the cancer was already there and was missed.
I would encourage anyone who suffers even the slightest symptoms which might suggest a similar problem not to ignore them, and go and get your PSA level checked, via a simple blood test. The symptoms include a poor flow, increased frequency and any type of back, hip or pelvic ache which might seem minor or dull and dismissed as irrelevant, age related or "wear and tear" arthitis. It is too easy to accept these as nothing, or for Doctors to re-assure you not to worry, take pain relieve and rest. My advice is make a fuss, get checked and be certain that early onset prostate cancer is not the cause. Catch it early and it can be treated successfully. Catching it late is not a good idea.
More later, after this period of waiting is over.