D-Day + 1 & 2

Well that was not half the fun I thought it was going to be. First, I’d like to think again all the people who reached out to me over the past couple days either directly or through Facebook. I wasn’t fully prepared for the outpouring of support and it meant so much. I shouldn’t be surprised as I’m surrounded by the most excellent of friends and family. To update, I’m back home but only operating at about 30% of capacity which will hopefully improve each day.

Heading to Hospital Friday Morning

As promised, I’m going to be sharing my journey through the next few weeks of the aftermath of my prostate removal. The operation itself was almost anti-climactic. I was moved from the pre-op area to a holding area which is where everybody going into surgery is staged. I had a very talkative guy next to me and I learned way too much about his upcoming procedure. This is where I met my surgeon and he said he had assembled his A Team which I guess is a good thing but it immediately brought an image of Mr T rummaging around in my abdomen.

Morale Photos from Granddaughters

Including a Hug

BRS & BR3 Also Got Into the Act

I say anti-climactic because I was really looking forward to seeing the OR and the robotic machine that was doing the delving. The next thing I knew it was 6 hours later and I was talking to the recovery room nurse. I had a number of new tubes coming out of my body but overall I felt really chipper (this would not last). I was able to speak with my Favorite Panamanian who related her conversation with the surgeon. She said the procedure took a little longer because my prostate turned out to be huge. I wasn’t sure what that meant but vowed to bring it up with the doc.

Finally in my Room Post-Op

I ended up being stuck in the recovery room for three more hours because my room wasn’t ready. The nurse said this is an ongoing problem at the hospital and that no one wants to work on Friday. It would be hypocritical of me to comment on that. I eventually got wheeled up to my room and found I only had a semi-private room and my roommate was snoring lustily when I entered. I did not consider this a good sign.

The First Walk

I was finally able to check out condition of my belly. I found one large incision and four smaller ones. They had all been glued shut. There was another tube sewed into my side that was a drain from the surgery site. It was filling up a balloon sized receptacle at my side. I also had the Foley catheter coming out of my nether regions. This is my first ever experience with a catheter and there is nothing to recommend it. I feel blessed that it was put it while I was sound asleep. The size of the tube is a little disconcerting as I didn’t realize I had that kind of capacity. I’m literally stuck with it for ten days.

My Overnight Home

One of the first orders of business was to get me up walking which wasn’t that hard except for maneuvering around all the aforementioned tubes. It was more of a shuffle than a walk but the upside was my wife showed halfway through my stroll and she brought peanut butter blossom cookies! She quizzed the nurse to see if I was truly authorized to eat them even though I had already obtained permission.  While my wife was there, we were able to talk with both of my kids and all the granddaughters which was medicinal.

The Real Hero - My Favorite Panamanian

When my wife departed, what followed turned out to be the longest night of my life. I desperately wanted to rest but this was truly elusive. I turned on my TV and lowered the volume so as to not interfere with my roommate. He heard though and shortly thereafter had his own TV on at a really loud volume. This went on until after eleven o’clock even though he was a asleep most of that time (I did mention the snoring right?) Several times over night I just fallen asleep when he started paling a game on his phone at a loud level. Finally, I said, “Dude!” and he put it away. He wasn’t the only, albeit closest, challenge to rest. The nurses came in hourly to take vitals and add bottles to the IV tree. Since my roommate was post op also, he had an IV tree too. Over night when he wasn’t keeping me awake or the nurses weren’t’ prodding, the machines tag teamed us with alarms. One would go off and we called the nurses’ station to get it turned off which they eventually did. About twenty minutes later the other one would cook off, so, again, a really, really long night.

The next morning, I finally saw my doctor. He said my prostate was very large and growing over the bladder which made the operation a little trickier but he was really happy with what he’d seen while in my abdomen. It will take a week for the pathology results back on the structures they pulled out to ensure the cancer had not spread, but at least I have my trusty catheter to keep me company while I wait. I was discharged right before noon and even though it had been only one day, I felt like I’d been at the hospital forever. I was so looking forward to finally getting some rest but it was not to be. I was in true agony for most of the afternoon. I had followed my sister’s advice at the hospital and taken the Oxy for pain when offered. My wife had left for the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed meds but I was having dull pain of gas and an intense pain in my lower belly which turned out to be bladder spasms. I immediately downed the Oxy when my wife came home but that didn’t put even a dent in the pain.

Coming Home Yesterday

I’ve been in some fairly painful experiences in my life including a severely broken ankle on a parachute jump but this was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. My wife, while very sympathetic, said I now knew what women went though during child birth. I told her to stop making me laugh because it hurt when I did. In desperation I sent an email to my surgeon explaining what I was going through. To my immense surprise and relief he called a few minutes later. When I described the pain he quickly identified the bladder spasms as one of the culprits. He also said I would experienced the gas pain because they inflate your stomach with gas during the operation to have more room to work. My daughter had experienced this during an appendectomy and had warned me about it. My only question is why don’t they pump the gas back out when they’re done? The doctor prescribed two other medications and my trooper of a wife headed back to the pharmacy to procure them.

I spent the entire time she was gone walking around the house because that seemed to be the only thing helped, although just a little bit. The pain was coming in waves and actually doubled me over a couple times. I’m usually pretty good at tolerating pain so this had me concerned. A half hour after taking the new medication the bladder spasms abated. If you ever have this procedure make sure the doctor sends you home with this medication. The gas pain paled in comparison to the spasms so I tried lying down again and was soon very asleep.                                         

I

Reading This Morning

I only had to get up once overnight to walk around a little since I had spent so much time on my back over the last couple days. I went right back to sleep despite the gas pain and woke feeling much better this morning. I was able to shower and change all the various bandages with my live in nurse who has really risen to the occasion. I cannot say enough good tings about my Favorite Panamanian, she is the best. Each day will be a little better now. While I walking though the pain yesterday I fielded a call from my Army buddy who had the same operation last month. He recognized everything I as going through and said it does get better readily after two or three days. They can’t come soon enough

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn