I was lucky with relatively early diagnosis. This was 9 years ago and a lot has changed.
Pre surgery Biopsy suggested Gleason 7 (3+4) and surgeon offered removal by keyhole, within a few weeks privately, or a bit longer on NHS, and felt that it wasn’t necessarily that urgent.
I just wanted it out, so took the private route, subsequent pathology checking of the beastie showed it to have been rather aggressive and close to breaking out, which could have been a very different outcome.
Being in Scotland I had tremendous support from Maggies, with 121 counselling for me and all of my immediate family. At the regular drop in sessions I felt a bit of a fraudster, being surgically cancer free and many of those I was having a cuppa and a chat with were on a terminal path.
I count myself lucky to still be here, though the long term emotional and physical impacts will haunt me forever, hopefully that will be a long time..