11-11-2021, 07:01 PM
Well, yesterday the surgeon pulled the plug on my catheter and told me I was good to go. Tentative, I said, "I hope this works," because if it didn't, I've lost my lifeline. "Oh, I'm sure it's taken care of it," he told me.
There's a theme here. Doctors more confident than I am.
So I went home and peed. Things looked good all evening.
But come bedtime, things changed. I was up 20 to 25 times peeing a bit, with a better stream than before, but still not enough to feel relieved. My bladder still isn't emptying. Not by much at a time. Then again, the surgeon warned me it might take a few days for things to straighten themselves out. So.... I will wait and see. Still, it seems odd. The problem doesn't manifest itself during the day.
My sense right now is that this procedure was necessary but insufficient. There's more going on, and maybe the bladder ought to be looked at. That's what I thought all along, but the urologist and surgeon both were very focused on the prostate. And why wouldn't they be? A 70-year-old male with pee problems and a father who died of prostate cancer and an older brother afflicted by the same the last two years of his life. So I certainly wasn't going to tell them to look elsewhere.
Anyway, I entered this whole procedure with cautious pessimism. I felt it was probably the right thing to do, but with doubts that it was the whole picture. If tonight goes like last night, I'll have to do a sanity check with that surgeon.
BTW, the surgeon told me that a tissue sample is currently in the lab. I hadn't realized they could do a biopsy with the laser technique. The surgeon corrected me on that, but said this is just a procedural thing and he doesn't expect anything to turn up.
I feel there really should be a punch line at this point. But it's 6 pm, time to start dinner.
There's a theme here. Doctors more confident than I am.
So I went home and peed. Things looked good all evening.
But come bedtime, things changed. I was up 20 to 25 times peeing a bit, with a better stream than before, but still not enough to feel relieved. My bladder still isn't emptying. Not by much at a time. Then again, the surgeon warned me it might take a few days for things to straighten themselves out. So.... I will wait and see. Still, it seems odd. The problem doesn't manifest itself during the day.
My sense right now is that this procedure was necessary but insufficient. There's more going on, and maybe the bladder ought to be looked at. That's what I thought all along, but the urologist and surgeon both were very focused on the prostate. And why wouldn't they be? A 70-year-old male with pee problems and a father who died of prostate cancer and an older brother afflicted by the same the last two years of his life. So I certainly wasn't going to tell them to look elsewhere.
Anyway, I entered this whole procedure with cautious pessimism. I felt it was probably the right thing to do, but with doubts that it was the whole picture. If tonight goes like last night, I'll have to do a sanity check with that surgeon.
BTW, the surgeon told me that a tissue sample is currently in the lab. I hadn't realized they could do a biopsy with the laser technique. The surgeon corrected me on that, but said this is just a procedural thing and he doesn't expect anything to turn up.
I feel there really should be a punch line at this point. But it's 6 pm, time to start dinner.
