First Week Home.

I caught some hell from Peg's cousins about not keeping up my blog. So now, I will try to cover the past 8 weeks or so. I left off with my first day coming home. The next morning, Peg had to get her hair done, so I got up, showered, put on a robe and went into my manly room to watch tv and drink coffee. This room is on the second floor and I could navigate very easily. Shortly after Peg left, I decided that I needed to get dressed and go fix some breakfast. It took a bit since bending is pretty difficult and that catheter is a pain. I was able to slip some gym shorts on without having to remove the bag, and waddle myself downstairs. I had some cereal and went back up to the manly room. I figured I had better become independent quickly since Peg would be going to work. It is amazing how tired you become after minimum effort. I had my afternoon nap and Peg made us dinner. I stayed up until 9 pm and felt that was a big accomplishment. I can only sleep on my back, which is not my preferred side for sleeping, but the incision hurts too badly to try anything else. I am able to sleep well through the night. The benefit of a catheter is that you dont have any midnight potty calls. I spent Sunday sitting in the family room watching football. Nothing I wouldnt do if I were healthy either.

Showering is one of those great pleasures in life. My routine is to get up, empty the bag, take my meds then hit the shower. I asked Peg to put a hook on a suction cup inside the shower door so that I can hook my bag on it and be free to move around. This works really well. I dont have any bandage on my incision and doc says it is ok to shower. I make sure I keep this clean, but it still gets some infection which I take care of with Neosporin. The worst is the catheter tube. I am very sore at the point of entry, and there is an almost constant discharge because of the irritation. I did start using Neosporin on this and it helped alot. So, my morning shower has become one of the highlights of my day, right up there with my afternoon nap. Of course that nap is a bit more than that. I would try to stay awake til about 3pm and then Peg would wake me when she came home, most days. One day, it was almost 7 when she came in and woke me. The fatigue is really hard to describe. I can be feeling great one minute, then it seems like I have been hit by a truck and need to sleep the next.

I have not had a cocktail since before surgery, and really, I am not interested in having one. Those that know me must be amazed. I have a Doctor appointment on Thursday. Peg works from home so that she can take me. The doc says that the pathology shows that the cancer was .01 centimeter from coming through the prostate wall. He got it in time, and thinks I will make a full recovery. The nurse removes my staples. This will be great to make showering easier. All in all, everything is well according to doc, and I am right where I should be for recovery.

By Saturday, one week plus 1 day after coming home, I demand that Peg get me out of the house. We start our trip to Tractor Supply. I am looking for a food mill to put up the tomatoes that are coming in like gangbusters from my deck garden. No luck at Tractor Supply, but I really like this place and it is a manly store to browse. I noticed Peg did not get the same enjoyment from being there that I do. She didnt even look at the tractor tires they sell! The next stop was lunch and we went to Mad Mex. We ate lunch and walked across the mall to the Rite Aid to look for diapers for me. My catheter was coming out in 3 days. My point is not to bore you with the details here, I just want you to note the walking involved. We went to another mall, checked out Linen and Things, then Target looking for that food mill. No luck.

Peg needed to make one more stop at Giant Eagle to pick up some things for dinner. I had to go in because my catheter bag was full. By this time, I could barely move from exhaustion and irritation from the catheter hose. I got home and went to bed for a few hours. The problem with a catheter is that the hose cannot come out since there is an inflated balloon inside the bladder that holds it in. It can, however, move in and out about a quarter inch. This happense ever time I take a step. So after all this walking, I was quite miserable from the irritation. I did have a manhatten that evening, and for any ailment, Bourbon, I recommend Bourbon. I took a pain pill and went to bed for the best nights sleep since surgery.