Have call into doctor. My drain is starting to fill with blood again. Not good. ..
Dr called me back and the thought is that there was a blockage that broke loose. The drainage now is stuff that should have been draining all along.
Everything else is looking good. If it gets too uncomfortable or I get too concerned I should go to the emergency room.
I’m experiencing a little more pain around the areas where the robot went in.
I have been “ambulating” (walking around) a lot more today.
The JP drain is almost empty today. I have a follow up appointment with the surgeon on Monday. He was supposed to remove the drain and the catheter on Monday.
My prostate was so enlarged that he had to really stretch the urethra pretty tight when he was rebuilding it after removal of the prostate, so he has not decided whether or not to keep the catheter in an extra week. I will find out on Monday. As much as I would like it removed, I want to be sure the urethra is healed properly.
The drain is a pain. It has a bandage over it that needs to be changed nightly (was a mess last night although it looks better today). It is pretty complicated the way the tube has to wind it’s way through the bandage. Thank God for my wife!
God is giving plenty of Grace to deal with all this (2 Cor 12:9) and I am trusting He is in control and is working all this out for my good! Rom 8:28
There is a lot of pain when I try to change positions (sitting/laying/standing).
Last night I tried to find a suitable place to sleep.
The recliner is too low, and it too painful to get in and out of. The bed was actually too high. I was able to get comfortable on couch and with the aid of a sleeping pill had a good nights sleep, no pain no moving around.
This morning, still very painful to move, but Dr. says I have to be “ambulatory.
The actual act of moving once I am up doesn’t hurt, its the getting up and down from a sitting position that hurts.
I was able to climb a set of stairs this morning okay. Sitting at my computer this morning is okay.
There is no blood in the catheter. There is some blood in the JP filter. That is expected to decrease over time.
I do not have stitches, he used some sort of bonding like super glue.
There is a dressing in the JP Drain that will need to be changed periodically.
The doctor was in here to see me in the morning. Looks like I’ll be going home from the hospital after lunch if everything goes okay. Have to try walking around.
I also have to hold down some solid food, so far have been on a liquid diet. Not in very much pain. But I haven’t moved around very much so far.
Everything went well. Have been discharged from the hospital and have arrived home.
Surgery went well expect to be discharged tomorrow. I want to thank everyone for their best wishes and prayers.
Everything is a go – heading down to the hospital to have the prostate removed. Have people all over the world in prayer. Such a blessing. Received a note from a missionary in Australia during the night, saying he would be praying this morning. Along with all the other notes of encouragement and prayer I am feeling blessed this morning.
God is in total control. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to this so called recovery period.
Romans 8:28.
Finished up at hospital. Cleared for surgery on Monday morning.
Well – heading off to the surgeon’s office for the last pre-surgery consult. Following that, have to go on down to the hospital for my pre-surgery check in.
The surgery is scheduled for Monday at 8:00 am. Check in time is 6:00 am. Not to concerned about the surgery itself. Real concerned about the first week or two of recovery.
There are supposed to be six small incisions on my abdomen (if everything goes well). I can’t sleep on my back due to sinus problems. And last time I had a prostate procedure and ended up with a catheter it was very painful. Will have a catheter for at least a week.
Add to this two cats, one of which is very affectionate. Probably going to be a rough couple of weeks.
God is able though. Eph 3:20 tells us Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…
Praying that God will give the strength and grace to handle this! And I have a lot of people praying for me!
The week before last we scheduled the surgery to have the prostate removed for April 20, 2019. This was contingent on having a clean bill of health from my cardiologist.
I work out 7 days a week, so the note from my heart doctor should not be a problem.
My wife had a problem with the surgery being so far out. I had a peace with it. I am in the process of migrating servers right now in the hosting ministry, and the next one is due to expire towards the end of April. I figured I would feel good and be sure to have the server I am working on closed out.
Today I received a call from the scheduler. They had a cancellation. The surgery has been moved up now to April 15. They also never got the go ahead from my cardiologist.
A call to the cardiologist discovers a letter was faxed to the surgeon on March 18. They were going to fax it again today. So – we are a go for April 15 at this time.
Shouldn’t be a problem, but I need to step up and make sure the server is completed prior to the surgery just in case.
If you are interested in more information than you probably wanted to know about prostate cancer, a good reference site is NCCN guidelines at http://www.nccn.org
I had good meetings with the radiologist and the surgeon on Wednesday. I was given a lot of information.
The logical choice is to do the surgery. There is a minimal chance of permanent side effects from the surgery after a 1-6 month healing period. I am waiting for the scheduling department to call me to set up an appointment.
The surgery will be laparoscopic, robotic (minimally invasive) with six 1/2 inch incisions barring any complications. The surgery (barring any complications) should take about three hours under general anesthesia.
There is a 99% chance of being cancer free after 10 years and a 97% chance of being cancer free after 15 years.
There is, however a 50% chance that I will still need to undergo radiation (8 weeks, 5x a week) and hormone therapy due to the cancer penetrating the area around the prostate given the amount of cancer and the gleason number (8) of the cancer. They won’t know until the prostate is removed and sent to a lab.
There is the option of just doing radiation, but surgery is very difficult if not impossible after radiation due to the damage that the radiation causes to the prostate,
I am not a candidate for the radiation pellets due to the size of my prostate.
