Slice and dice Monday

After two days of being stuck, poked, x-rayed, MRI'd, interviewed, filling out the same form at each specialist at MD Anderson, I'm cleared for Da Vinci surgery Monday morning. I especially enjoyed the endorectal coil/balloon they shoved up my rear for the MRI .

We had another meeting with Dr. Davis (my urologist/RP surgeon) and asked some final questions. One burning question I wanted to ask was if he would be at the console for the entire operation and sure enough, he will. He said the entire process will take three hours - about an hour for the pre-op stuff (anesthesia, etc.) and his time at the Da Vinci console will be about two hours.

After spending a few days at MD Anderson, we are a bit more adept at finding our way around the huge facility - it reminds me of a huge maze or an airport designed by a team of chimpanzees. We had a queen suite at the attached Rotary House which was quite nice with two large screen TVs. We have a queen suite reserved there for 14 days following my surgery - hopefully we won't need to be there for the full 14 days though.

MD Anderson told me we will have a private hospital room following my surgery and my wife can spend the night in the room, that's a nice feature should she want to stay all night with me (she's an RN - boy am I a lucky guy.)

Unfortunately I won't have post-surgery biopsy results for six weeks.

Thanks! I printed out your list of stuff to have on-hand for post-surgery so we'll round up all of that up shortly. My libido is way, way down so I'll probably leave the nurse alone ;-) Told Dr. Davis to not spare the nerves if there was any doubt about them being involved so I might turn into a defacto eunuch.

See you on the other side. You're going to be fine and are in good hands.

Andrew

John - I've been to MDA twice and stayed at the Rotary House one trip. I did not have my surgery there.  It is an impressive place. The 3 hour time for surgery sounds about right. You will not know anything is going on and will wake up later in your room. Fear not, you are in very good hands there.   Best to you!

Good luck John from another Texan. See you on the other side.
Rick

If I've learned anything in the last 2 weeks, it's just how vast the wasteland of daytime tv really is.

You guys are the best :)

We asked about getting a recliner in the suite and the girl at the counter (the Rotary House is managed by Marriott) said they were removed. Why they were removed and not available is a mystery but I'll ask again when we check in Sunday.

I took my Google Chromecast dongle and the hotel's WiFi was fast enough to watch some movies during the day (fortunately the TV had HDMI inputs.) Sunday I'm taking my Roku box so I'll have more on-line entertainment available - it seems to work better than the Chromecast dongle.

Yup - trying to relax, cocktails (wine) at 4PM and then that's the end of that for a couple of weeks at least. We leave tomorrow morning to drive back to Houston.

Yes, having da Vinci surgery by Dr. John W. Davis - he's done 2,000 prostatectomies since the machine came out. He must have been a very early adopter.

Good luck on Monday. I am up in The Woodlands (I had my surgery here at Memorial Hermann rather than go down to Houston). Please let me know if you need anything while you are here. Since I have retired, I have some free time. Prayers sent your way for a easy recovery.

John,
Good luck Monday and we'll see you on the other side!

I brought DVD movies to watch in the hotel room but ended up watching the Food Channel all day. I guess it was because I was on a bland diet for a week while the catheter was in and it was the next best thing.

I am from Texas originally and I asked the nurse just before checking out after surgery if I could go to my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant the next day. She said if you do, you will end up back in the hospital and I will REALLY BE MAD THEN! I didn't go.

Bill from Florida

John, you'll do fine. I'm coming up on 2 weeks since RALP, and I'm surprised at how good I feel and how much better I am day by day.

John, the anticipation is the hardest part, and that's almost over for you. Good luck.

Ready to kick ca in the butt! Just got settled in at Rotary House and hooray we have a recliner chair in the room :) .

Next up is drinking my mag citrate, yummy.

We have a very nice room, this will be a great place to get well post-op.