Pre op and set up

I'll go through some of the things we did to get ready for the surgery. It was set up to be the robotics surgery, which is less invasive and easier to get over. I wanted that, because I don't like to screwed up very long.

I have never had a surgery before, never been in a hospital for anything, but have visited quite a few times. Not my favorite place, although I was married to a nurse for over 25 years and know quite alot about the places. My current wife had worked in the medical profession in various roles, my step daughter is a nurse, my other step daughter is a nurse and I have never played one in a movie role, I know a few doctors.

My regular doc, who has now gone over to being a "hospitalist" first found my enlarged prostate through one of those lovely rectal exams. He said there was a slight harding on one side but the PSA was very low and we would set on it a while to see what transpired. After about a year of transpiring, he sent me to a Uroligist and he said about the same thing. Very talented guy, explained the situation and said we would screen it every three months and watch it. My urination was a little impaired and although wasn't a problem, it was a distraction to me and I could tell something was not right.

We checked it out for about a year and the PSA went up and then down and then back up. It was at 4.2, whereas it had been setting around 2 or 3 for a long time. So the doc, said he didn't like the feeling he was getting so we would do a biopsy to see if the prostate could tell us anything.

Now that is an experience I wouldn't want to go through again. I thought I might be allergic to novacaine and so they performed it without anesthetics. Believe me, unless you know for sure that you are allergic to something, don't say you think you are. They took twelve samples with a tool that was guided by a sonagram type device. I tell you what, getting to that twelfth one was a chore. I told them later to tell everyone they were going to take fifteen samples and then stop at twelve and tell them since they have been so good, they are going to stop.

Anyway, doc said it looked really good as they were coming out and that he thought everything was fine. But when the tests came back, we had three spots that were not ideal. So we could sit on this stuff for a few more years, or go after it now, while we were sure that was pretty contained in the prostate. My gleason score (which determines where you sit in relation to where you want to sit) was around 6. Now the 4s and 5s some say are really not possible and are probably false reads, but anything above 6 is starting to not be okay. I took that as a sign to act now. I said let's get this out.

I talked to some of my friends who were having a problem or who have had the problem and I decided that the surgery was the best for me. If it is pretty sure that it is restricted to the prostate, and hasn't spread around, then the surgery will get rid of it right now. It might leave a few bad things behind like, peeing down your leg at times or not being able to get an erection but what the heck, you are alive. Now those things have been minimized with the emergence of the robotics. They don't have to cut up so much stuff, and I don't know anything about you, but if you left me somewhere to cut up something, I would probably make a few bad cuts. The radiation treatment is good also and has made great stides forward, but you can do that if the surgery goes bad. You can't go the other way. Supposedly your body is too weakened by the radiation to allow surgery afterwards. But if it does happen to spread to the lymph system, you can get to those specific areas with the radiation.

So now for my preparation. I wanted to go in there in the best health I could muster. I had about a month before time to go, so I decided to get myself in shape. I'm usually not in bad shape anyway, not overweight (according to me) and live a pretty good lifestyle. But, I wanted to load the scales in my direction. I started to walk more, eat better and exercise more. I wanted to go in there with a minimum of fat to have to cut through and a maximum of tone. I got to 30 reps of pushups, situps, squats etc. And went on a pretty good diet, except I wouldn't give up my mocha frappaccinos. You have to have something worth living for.

One of the hardest parts so far has been the 2/3 day prep before going in. You have to cut out all solid foods, drink broth, lots of water, then do that dreaded enema. Somehow that has never been a likable activity for me. I would never make it in prison, believe me. I had to drink some citrate thing the day before which loads you up like a bomb to blow all the bad stuff out and then we finished up with a good ole enema. Guess they don't want you pooping on the operating table. But really, what it is for is to reduce the amount of stuff there, because they have to push as much of your guts out of the road to get to the good stuff, and if you are all full of pizza, it's going to make for a sloppy operation. In fact they set you on an angle so all the extraneous stuff sort of slides down toward you head. So if you come out feeling like you have been standing on your head too long, probably have.

So now you go in, get checked in, get one of those designer gowns (which have now been upgraded to the non air conditioned in the rear. They are actually pretty nice. You have your own air conditioner unit that plugs into the gown and you feel like an astronaut about to take off for the far reaches. They start up the IV, give you a shave and put you in a gurney that get pushed all over. Really fun.

Now you are going to go into an operating room with a bunch of people and the robot is there. They introduced me to it and it is sort of like a Transformer. Probably turns into a Porsche when it is not performing in the room. I called it Wall-e and hoped I didn't piss it off. Anyway, they move you over to a table that looks like it is made from gelatin, and that's to keep you stuck to the table after they tilt you up. Then they start to hook things up and talk about all kinds of stuff, but about that time the anethesiologist (hope I spell that right)(who by the way is a great guy that you have talked to before) sneaks up and puts something in your wine and you are on your way to never never land.

Don't remember a thing. One second I'm there the next, I'm not.

That's the prep and the origin of this story.

I'll go through the rest on a daily basis.

I hope this helps some others.