D-Day, the pathology report

Today I had the follow up appointment from surgery to get the staples and catheter out and to review the pathology report with the Dr and determine next steps.

first, staples and other came out fine, that was the easy part.
In the conversation with the surgeon, he's 99% sure he got 99% of the cancer out. Only one lymph node was positive and the belief is that there may be microcells contained within the pelvic cavity.

So, what next. Well, my surgeon works collaboratively with radiation oncologists and medical oncologists and my case will be discussed at the next 'tumor panel' meeting. The initial thoughts are maybe some radiation and hormone treatments. I'll know more in a couple of weeks which way the thinking is going.

4 weeks from today I'll get my PSA test taken to establish a new baseline and then it will be checked every 3 months afterwards for the first year.

Fighting cancer takes a lot out of you...I'm exhausted...but maybe that's just from the long day of travel back and forth.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued support, it's very much appreciated.

Oh, I can't sign off without asking two questions (feel free to post a comment/response)

1. Did Tiger Woods choke this past weekend?
2. Is Brett Favre nuts?

later

making progress

Hey everyone, quick update on my progress post-surgery. Things are going well, actually a little better than I anticipated. Since arriving home last week wednesday, I've made a point to walk every day since it's the best activity I can do.....hell it's the only thing they'll let me know :)

Friday-Sunday I've walked 2 miles each day and of course a little tired but that's to be expected.
The Dr. said fatigue would stick around for 2 weeks since I lost just shy of a unit of blood during surgery. The good news about that is the Dr. gave me the green light to eat as much red meat as I want for two weeks....it's been good so far.

If you know me, you know I'm itching to get back to work 100%, I'm not good about just sitting around 'resting'.

Hope you all are great and as always, I appreciate the positive thoughts and prayers, they've helped.

Make it a great week!

ouch

man it's not easy after surgery, so much bloating I feel like the Goodyear Blimp. Trying to 'get the plumbing' working afterwards is more of a challenge with more pain than I had anticipated, even with pain meds.
the goofy thing about pain meds is they are your friend enemy at the same, while they give you pain relief, they cause more pain because they bind you up.

Starting to make a little progress so that's a good thing. Had a 101 fever last night but back to normal today.

The past two days I've walked about 2 miles each and it serves two purposes, preventing blood clots and moving things through the 'plumbing'.

while I know the best thing for me to do is rest, it's really hard to fight the temptation to do something work related. But, that's where Kathy and my mom come in, they watch me like a hawk so I don't drift into my home office.

One byproduct of recuperation is the time to read, time to pick up the book again.

later

give up?

Okay, the last couple of blogs posts I gave some hints as to what movie the line "easy, peasy, japaneesy" came from and one hint I was incorrect. The time period was the late 40's not the 50's.

give up? It's the Shawshank Redemption...it's where Birdie (the librarian in the prison) shows Andy (Tim Robbins) how to sort and put away the books on the shelves.

And where did Andy and Red end up?
Zihuatanejo....and if you've never been there, you have to go. It's awesome.

Week 3 of treatments, off to another smooth start. I'm getting pretty good at jumping on the table and almost getting myself all lined up without too many adjustments. Practice makes perfect.
Surgery is set, 31 days away. Can't wait to get in, get it out and move on.

Friends, thanks for all the support, it helps.
A Point to Ponder: Why do we label underwear as a 'pair'?

Did you honor our Military?

I hope you had a great weekend and spent time honoring and remembering our veterans and current military personnel, we owe them big time. Living in America is something special and we need to remember Freedom isn't free, the price is paid by dedicated individuals.

the weekend here was good, did the usual yard work and even dodged the rain and played a little golf. there were some small signs of improvement so maybe the treatments are paying off in another way.

Speaking of treatments, Memorial day was great, no traffic so it was a breeze. Today, different story, crazy traffic got in my way of being on time. I have to say, the radiation technicians are so, so nice it makes the visit easy.

I finally made the time to read the Lance Armstrong book: 'It not about the bike' and of course it was as good as everyone said it would be. If you haven't read it yet, you need to.

Later

radiation under way

started radiation monday, May 18, so far so good. 28 more treatments to go.
I don't think it has sunk in yet that I have cancer...my guess is that will change.

a buddy of mine told me "you just threw out the first pitch", just wait.
I'm optimistic this will be the easy part and surgery will be the challenge, at least for a couple of weeks.