March 8, 2015

Reader. Stay out of hospitals.  I had the recent misfortune of spending two night and three days in a hospital.  The hospital stay itself was a torture to be endurd, I am become a breathing cadaver.  Probed, poked, hooked to IV, strapped to a rhina nose tag.. that is tube inserted down the throat into the stomach, I was left to wait for a hospital room.  Yikes here is an observation. From the moment the doctor told the nurse those initials I knew what I was going to experiecne.  The doctor said RN and I knew it was going to be a nose tag,  I was strapped to a table, how could I escape, there were two cops in the space next to me.  I knew that I wouild be cornered and have a tube run down my throat and into my stomach. The sweet young woman who was going to inflict this on me said, "You're not going to like me as much when I do what I have to do to you," .  I said it was ok and I understood.  So she explained it to me ,measured off the amout of tubing, and began fishing it down my nostril,  Not a way to describe it.. not horrific pain, endurable but unpleasant and uncomfortable.
So there I sat, or tried to because my body kept me hopping back and forth to the bathroom.  Another endurance test, diarrhea with catheters,  diarrhea with a nose tag, an IV bag and another tube to help the stomach pump.  I felt like Frankenstein when he was captured.
I couldn't move one way or the next.  The ancients captured wild beasts for later spectacle use in this manner.  Most peoples have devised this manner of capturing in a net as a safe, efficient way to hunt for a small village.  The same holds true for fishing.

But of the stay and its ups and downs...See  me getting up to go and then trying to lie down with covers.  Or, witness me walking the halls, medical equipment hung on a pole with wheels.  Imagine me roaming the hall, thirsty, hungry, dirty in a word: miserable.  The surgical gown was too large and I didn't have it tied in back,  The pajama bottoms were too long, extra large, in fact.  So look at me, beard a mess, hair a greasy mess, clothes rolled up to keep the pajama bottoms from falling down to the floor.  Ah yes, the very glass of fashion!

A second long night ticks on, and on, and on  never  stopping.  The thought, the hope, the desire for something to eat or drink. Jello, sherbert, tea, cinammon toast with butter.  Anything, a glass of water.  But no.  MY stomach has to be completely empty before I can put food into it and then light foods for days.  I go to the bathroom, find a tube of tooth paste, put the paste on my finger and rubbed my teeth and gums, I rinse my mouth but do not drink.  Anything I eat or drink will delay my recovery and discharge,  Go Spartan, Lem, be tough.
I held out but didn't sleep; by daylight I was exhausted.  The snow which troubled me so the night before was over and clean up well on its way to opening roads, parking lots and such.  It is daylight and the great storm was done with a mangeable 6 inches.  The storm has looked ferocious, I was sick in the hospital, strapped to several machines and Anita was home alone with a broken smoke detector.

I was worried almost fearful for her safety because I thought this was going to be a monster storm with nearly 2 feet of snow. I was worried I might be in the hospital for days and fearful for Anita.  There wasn't much else on my mind.  In this distressed state and tired of being strapped to machines, I had the idea of unhooking myself and walking home.  I didn't know my clothes were in a closet I could access or I may have done it.  But as it was my defective thought process, were checked by the enormity of the deed and the likelihood I might die or be killed.  I was going to try to walk home in a snow storm wearing a surgical gown, extra large pj bottoms and no shoes,
How far would I have gotten?  Break of crazy thought.  Wait.. it's a matter of 12 hours and things will begin to get better and you may even get fed and ot discharged!  Yeah...Who told you the Inquisition was over? Spend a night in a hospital undergoing tests to see if surgery is necessary.  Walking ten or twelve miles is way beyond me now,  Even at my best I never approached that level.  Perhaps I'd walk 3-4 miles a day,  At times it was a form of meditation, meditation through deep breathing exercises attached to steps or strides, Wonderful to be out there walking, totally locked into walking, breathing but reaching extreme lmits of holding my breath,  Long ago.


Sunday morning in the hospital, dirty, stinky, ready to go, yearning for coffee.  Anita arrives mid to late morning.  I make an ass of myself by calling my barber for an appointment this next day.  She's shocked and I am aware I breached a rule not to call this barber ever but I may be getting out of here today and I need a hair cut tomorrow and I'm sorry to bother you on Sunday but if I wait until Monday morning she will have a full schedule.  But I got the appointment and the hair cut.  In short I got out of there as soon as possible,  But not before food began arriving.  Beef broth of sort at noon, potato soup at two, tomato soup at four and at six pork, gravy, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.  Now sauerkraut ain't never really good but I eat it on Thanksgiving and that's about it.  Years ago when my stomach was younger I put sauerkraut and onions on a hot dog, truly did.  Once I could eat corned beef,  I sent the supper back untouched and was out of there within an hour.  Anybody got insomnia?  Spend a night or two in a hospital.  When you get back home you'll sleep.  Trust me on that.

Tonight is already here.  Thanks for reading if you did.

Steve

Christmas 2014

Though most of 2014 was a bust and much of it very painful, excruciating and many things had to be cancelled or postponed I still treasure it for its gifts and joy.  The cold that we had all November and December is behind us, I hope, I hope! and we're prepping for Christmas.  I might say we are enjoying delight as we sing from the cantata.  Funny I want to do that again.  I sat down here with the idea of opening up, say 10 pages off the top, some of it relevant, some of it silly.  I had a massage today... nice, very very nice,  Which reminds me of Cat's Cradle.. another of those bizarre items I picked off the shelf.  It was in the school but not its curriculum.  Navigating that was no trouble, the kids lied the book, got the point and enjoyed the humor Vonnegut gave it.  It was a kind of treat, a novel I'd throw in just before Christmas because it takes place at Christmas and has a sorta Christmacy essence to it.  I guess that relationship would be in a wonder world, scene splitting, time gauging.  Still, you can't go wrong with hh.  Salinger can take kids into a reality they don't know and like.  It's also over a vacation, again Christma, and must be presented carefully lest students think Holden's self-destruct in deftly avoided but the Caufield are a sorry family, money, prestige, maids, chauferrs, private school and still the kids turn out rotten, some do, some down.  He's my brudda the onr wiaf says about another when asked about their relationship the fact they are cutting school.  Plus give kudos to Salinger who frames the modern neolithic with the two bruddas.  Ah Pittsburgh, though should be flourishing.  There's talent in them there hills, real talents, sports, science, comedy, writers.  For towns slung onto rocky mountains, the folks do as best as they can to cling on... hey clingon.  You get the idea, them western hills around Pittsburgh produce some remarkable people, your speaker among them.  ha ha,
So it comes to this.  One doctor on a surgical mania thinks i should have a robotic neural surgry to trim back parts of the 3nd and 2nd facial nerves of the trigeminal.  It's th nerve of function conecting the necessary eye teeth to the brain, allowing the brain to gauge snd chew.  So the assurances are that I have an 80% of never having this neuraligia headaches, the cautions that there is a 20% chance of some pralysis twenty or more years away.  What a classic approach-avoidance dilemma!   More information is needed and I need to consult both my family doctor, dentst and dental clinic.  Lots of calls and visits to doubt.  I am willing to look into it, see what others say, consider how I want to go forward.  The dental neuralgia can't be ignored.

TURP Good news and Better new

So the ordeal of TURP surgery is nearly over.  Transurethal Resectioning of the Prostate is the medical term.  Roto Rooter surgery is the street term and the one that most describes it.  But first the good news and the better news.  First I have no cancer cells in my bladder and second I don't have prostate cancer.  This doesn't mean the bladder cancer is gone for good but that as of now, it has been eliminated.  Of course periodic cystoscopic checks will be needed.  As to the TURP well that was done about 3 weeks ago and today I thought all the post surgical pain was gone.  It was until about half hour ago but it's not so bad that I need to call the dr. for a refill of oxycontin.. had enough of that stuff for a lifetime though it does make one feel warm and fuzzy.  For now it's pyridium a nasty urethal anelgesic that turns the urine orange.. bright orange to red.
What this damn TURP surgery accomplished was it forced us to cancel our long-awaited trip to London and Wales,  The doctor or his nurse was fairly emphatic that should the worst happen I'd end up in a foreign country will a prostate that was bleeding and that no on would have my medical records or know how to proceed.  So far that hasn't happened but not to say it wouldn't have.  Then there was the problem that being in recovery from surgery I might not enjoy the trip as much.  There was always the option of allowing Anita to go alone but she wouldn't hear of it.  Yesterday I was glad we hadn't gone.. I slept all all day and the ache was there through it all. Until a short time ago I was terrific and ok but now I am getting some pain vibes.  The codeine is all gone.. so I'll see how the night goes.
The worst part of this was missing the trip to London.  Well the second worst part.  The worst part was two bouts of AUR, Acute Urinary Retention.. when the uretha is unable to allow water to pass from the bladder and out because the prostate is swollen and choking off the uretha.  First there is the fear, followed by drops of blood, then the bladder goes into spasm as it fill and expects to be emptied.  The pain i gruesome.. Spanish Inquisition style pain, kidney stone pain.  Finally the bladder is drained after a tube is inserted.  Once the bladder was emptied I fellt better than I've ever felt.  The relief was ecstasy.  Opps.. my bladder is giving me twinges.. I have to see it I can void.  That's the other scary part.  Even afetr a few weeks, I'm not sure that when I try to void I'll be able to void.  It almost makes me avoid voiding.  Pun.
None of this has been fun.  I guess the best part is that readers, if there are any left, will no longer have to put up with my whining Cancer Journal by the day.  It wasn't fun and neither was what followed.  But I am back.. I feel ok and soon I'll be doing the things I usually do which is usually nothing.  On the good side I have been reading and missing the trip to London did allow us to watch the Preakness.. bfd. I'll take London and Wales, Oh yeah and I also missed my 50th high school class reunion. What more is there to live for?  My grandsons.
Gotta go Supper is ready.

Living with Cancer Days 6,7,8 plus ye old prostate

Living with cancer part 4 a day later

It was a good day, or so I thought.  We'd been wakened by a ring and run at 2 am. I ignored it because I had a catheter in my penis, not too quick with that dangling.  Earlier in the day, a new low.  I awoke in a pool of pee.  My bag had leaked.  My own fault.  But the day really hadn't been bad until we discovered vandalism.  Someone had tried to pry the Benz door ajar.  We notice that opening and closing a door was a bit more difficult.  Then we noticed a dent near the lock.  Seriously someone had tried to enter my car.  Pisses me off.  Door locks are tricky business to replace.  It takes a knowledgeable hand to handle the job and it may never be right!  I reported the crime.  What else is there to do?  Today I peed!  It's a really big deal to me because I'm on my own. Now I can recover from a dreadful week.  The biopsy messed me up. Close for today.

Living with cancer parts 5 and 6

I have skipped a few days since my last entry and things have gone from bad to worse.  Mostly things have gotten worse because I am such an idiot.  Yesterday I worked fairly hard and then had to lunatic feeling that I wanted to have a kick or thrill.. end that there.
This cancer is horrible.  Today I woke to a retention problem again and had to have my bladder drained and a catheter re-inserted.  Oh goodie.  After the bladder was drained I came home and went to sleep for two hours of delicious and satistying rest. In the morning  I was in agony, horrible terrible pain with spurts of blood shooting out and ruining my underwear.  Everything is a mess.. I have no life lately.  All I do is suffer and worry.  I worry about the suffering.  When I was at the doctor's I made a pest of myself and finally got an MA* to take care of me.  It seemed as if I were being passed off to the unlucky one.  But Barb did a nice job.  I wasn't the most tractable patient. Barb kept trying to get a sonar of my bladder and as she pushed down on my bladder she kept teeling me to relax but the pain was so exquisite I couldn't relax. We did get the sounding and she inserted a tube and drained me then added the catheter and sent me home. It's a very humbling thing to lose control of one's body.  I never imagined that this cancer would knock me over and rob me of my life.  Well there's only so much one can say about pain and suffering until people stop listening or reading.  So dear reader I apologiza.
You can't know where I am coming from and I hope you never do!  l cancelled our Easter diinner with friends and our daughter is bringing her three pets for us to keep for a 10 days while she is on a cruise.  I'm not going to be any good to my wife with those pets.  Talk about bad timing.  Things certainly have gotten out of hand..
I've vowed to fight this cancer and now is the time to pull myself up and do that.  For now best wishes to all from a sick and tired man.
I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! How am I going to take the dog for a walk. with a catheter in my penis?  I can't do it.  And the operation.. scares me. I've stood all I can stands and I can't stand no more.  Back to my book.  At least I had an 800 page plus novel to entertain me.

* Medical assistant

Living with cancer and catheters part 3

I'd begun thise entry earlier on my IPad but lost it when I accidentally touched the screen.  The first attempt began with a rather gross description of a reecnt experiences with catheters.  Five days ago I had a biopsy and re-sectioning of my bladder.  I awoke with a catheter in my uretha.  The catheter was in until two days later when my wife pulled it out.  Well she didn't pull it, she gently released it. No problems or so I thought.  Later than night I awoke with an urge to void.  Nothing new for a man my age.  But,  I couldn't pee.. It just wouldn't flow.  I was in agony, a full bladder and I was unable to relieve the urge.  I tried a bath, a shower, running water.. all of which usually cause the bladder to give release its contents.  Nothing worked and as the night went on, the pain and the urges got worse.  Every five minutes or so I'd have a spasm and then attempt to pass the water.  Drops might fly out but no stream.  It was agony and I was sure I'd be in the Emergency Room by dawn.  But I fought through the pain; it must have been the vicoden that helped me.  Finally I called the urological centers for the on-call doctor, who just happened to by the doctor who had performed my procedure.  He told me to meet him at the office.  Of course I couldn't get there soon enough.

Once at the doctor's office a nurse took me to an observation room and put a catheter in an drained me.  Drained its the right word here because the bladder was top full.  It yielded almost a half gallon of urine.  The relief was tremendous and immediate.  My coloring had gone white as a sheet and even as I was being drained the color came back.  As the nurse inserted the catheter I recited the poem Invictus.. which I have memorized for those occasions when pain will be overwhelming.  It works.  The new catheter was inserted and I was sent home and told to keep the cateter in until Monday, four days away.  So here I am with my second catheter in a week and feeling almost normal.  Normal to a person wearing a catheter has little meaning.  Things are improving.. thanks not only to the catheter but also vicoden.
Add to this miseryfest a pulled back and you, dear reader, may only imagine the state I am in presently.

As much as I am looking forward to getting the catheter out I am also worried that history will repeat itself.  What if, what it, what if.  But I will survive this.  My urologist has also given me a medication which will shrink my prostate.  The prostate is swollen or enlarged and that is choking off the flow from bladder to uretha.  The doctor also mentioned a follow-up surgery called the roto-rooter.  I've heard about that and what I've heard isn't pretty.  Even the name of the surgery is disgusting. If the medication shrinks the prostate I'll be happy but then again, what if?  So I go on and on with worry and dread.  There is literally a cloud hanging over my head.

If you've never had a catheter in then try to avoid it.  I never thought I would welcome the relief that a catheter can offer.  Now I am afraid I will not be able to go on without one.  But I do intend to try.  Once a person experiences not being able to pee, one learns that catheters are a blessing.  Until then, the catheter is a loathsome device.  The inability to pee took me to my knees and made me welcome the catheter.. cancer teaches a person many things most of which I would prefer not to know: How to shower with a catheter in.  How to have a BM with a catheter in.  How to sit down slowly so as to prevent jerking the catheter and causing pain of a new sort.  As I said, if you have never had a catheter in try to keep it that way and should you need one, be grateful that such a device is available,  loathsome as it may sound.  Until my next post, be well my friends.