No more catheter!
Bill Anderson
It's been 10 days since my robotically assisted laparoscopic radical
prostatectomy.
The doc performed a cystogram this afternoon, saw nothing of concern,
and out came the catheter. Yay! Funny to feel both discomfort and
relief mixed together as the thing came out.
My doc doesn't care a thing about Kegel exercises. He just wanted to
seem me perform what he calls the "turtle," which is simply making my
penis retract. He says as long as a patient can do that at will, he
shouldn't have trouble with incontinence very long. He seems to think
that if you can do it, you can do it and if you can't, you can't, and
repetition exercises aren't necessary.
Well, he practically beamed when he saw me perform. He even called
other people over to watch -- "Look at this, everybody! (Do it again!)"
He said I win the prize, that on a scale of 1-10, my turtle is an 11.
He explained that with some men he simply can't verbalize what he
wants to see and has even needed to send some to a physical therapist to
figure it out. But me, well, neither of us had any idea I might possess
such an amazing talent. I told him that if I'm the best performer I
want a trophy, and he grinned and said he knows exactly how to design one.
I had a good pathology report, he said. My Gleason score from the
pre-surgery biopsy was 3+3 6 and the pathology report shows 3+4 7. He
says that's nothing to worry about. The real story, he says, will be
told by a PSA test in about 3-4 months. And he doesn't want to see me
again until then.
I'm planning to work at least half days at the office next week. Will
play it by ear, being careful not to get too tired. I stopped by the
office yesterday for a retirement party and did great at first but
suddenly felt myself crashing and headed home. It was all good -- the
walk home took a while but I did fine.
I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about all this.
--
Bill Anderson
I am the Mighty Favog
Alan Meyer
It sounds to me like "the turtle" uses the same muscles as
what other people call Kegels. But your doctor is giving
you an easy way to think about it and a way to see whether
you're doing it effectively.
Sounds like a fine doctor to me.
Congratulations and good luck.
Alan
chazjac
--charlie
Steve Kramer
news:acidnS17_8yLx_7W...@giganews.com...
> My doc doesn't care a thing about Kegel exercises. He just wanted to seem
> me perform what he calls the "turtle," which is simply making my penis
> retract.
skramer remarks
I'd be happy doing a reverse turtle.
--
PSA 16 10/17/2000 @ 46
Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c
RRP 12/15/2000 G7 (3+4), T3cN0M0 Neg margins
PSA <.1 <.1 <.1 .27 .37 .75 PSAD 0.19 years
EBRT 05-07/2002 @ 47
PSA .34 .22 .15 .21 .32 PSAD 0.56 years
Lupron 07/03 (1 mo) 8/03 and every 4 months there after
PSA .07 .05 .06 .09 .08 .132 .145 PSAD 1.40 years
Casodex added daily 07/06
PSA undetectable since. Next Assay 02/02/10
Illegitimati non carborundum
Bill Anderson
> "Bill Anderson" <billand...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:acidnS17_8yLx_7W...@giganews.com...
>
>> My doc doesn't care a thing about Kegel exercises. He just wanted to seem
>> me perform what he calls the "turtle," which is simply making my penis
>> retract.
>
> skramer remarks
>
> I'd be happy doing a reverse turtle.
>
>
>
He told me we'd have that conversation when he sees me in 3-4 months.
All I know now is that the nerves supposedly were spared.
jloomis
Is that a "Snapping Turtle"?
john