Prostate Surgery

The really important thing to understand, when you are offered DaVinci Prostate surgery, is that when they talk about how simple and easy and almost fun it is - they are talking about the SURGEON'S experience.  THEY have a great time.  Doing this surgery is more fun (for them) than playing Donkey Kong.  What the DON'T tell you is that they blow your stomach up with CO2 so they can see your insides better and THEN they paralyze your bowels so you can't get rid of it.  Recovery is really, really painful.  Then (while your manly man iswhimpering in pain) they tell you that the catheter they have already put inside you will cause bladder cramps which may be mild or excruciating.  "Just expect that".  (Query: Will Midol help?  I went out and purchased some of those menstrual cramp pads that warm up.  Bladder is in the same region as the uterus, maybe the same stuff I used for menstrual cramps will help.  I tried getting him to do childbirth breathing when the pain was really intense, but he couldn't focus.)

  
I brought Charley home late last night.  He was very nervous about coming home.  The pain has been so intense that, if a CIA operative had walked into the room, he would have gladly confessed to killing Lincoln, Kennedy, MLK AND Lennon.

The down side is that this at-home "hospital ward" has no shifts and only one nurse - me.  The upside is that I don't get distracted and I give pain meds on time.  (When I got to the hospital last night at 7:30, I asked around and discovered the last time he'd had meds was 11 am - he was very fretful and not thinking straight because of the pain.)  So Charley is doing much better at home because I'm making him take his pain meds and stool softeners.   Except for bullying him regarding meds, I'm letting him do whatever he feels like doing.  He is going up and down stairs to get what he wants, managing his own catheter and getting himself dressed.  He is also finding out what things hurt and what things he can do.  Sam is better, too.   He didn't get enough treatments the last two days because I was running to and from the hospital and he didn't really like having his parents missing. Those two ladies were not great substitutes as far as he was concerned.  (Personally, I think they were close relatives of angels.)  They kept watching the WRONG shows on HIS tv.  He was polite and charming to them, but once they left he let me know that he wasn't very happy.  A mother's place is in the home, waiting on him. 

So I'm actually doing ok, too.  It is too cold to go outside anyway and we're just focused on healing and knitting.  It was absolutely great to have him home again and I slept really well.  It's cozy and intimate and we're all three really aware of how important we are to each other.

I'm going to put in a PeaPod order later today, so we're okay food wise.  So really we need prayers and peace.  You could add my hearing aides to your prayer list: I have lost them (They HAVE to be here in the house someplace, I just got distracted) And praise: yesterday I hit a really big pot hole which blew out my tire and bent the rim, but I'm okay and I'm driving Charley's car until we can focus on fixing that.  I hit the pot hole right next to a shell gas station and they patched it up enough for me to get home.  There are TWO tire places in our alley! So I will be able to get it fixed without driving it again!

I didn't manage to get all the Christmas presents in the mail yet, but the last few are all boxed up and I'll get to it asap.