For Wicket

Kat,

I read your letter to Curtis and he wanted you to know how much we appreciate you taking the time in your very busy schedule to reassure us about the up and coming surgery.  We feel much better since reading your letter.

Thanks again!

Tom,

you may want to go the main area for Prostrate Cancer and enter a new topic. that way a lot of people will see your post and respond. my husband just happened to be referred to his urologist, who is excellent. I'm sure there are other people from FL who can recommend someone to you. they just have to know you are here.

Ellen,

Jeff went into surgery at 7:30 AM. I went to the family waiting room alone, read a while, napped a while (we had been up since 4:00 so I was tired), walked outside a little bit (with tears and prayers). they had a volunteer there who took my name and info and came to me around 10:30 to say the surgery was over and the doctor would be seeing me soon. he came around 11:00 and told me that everything went well and I would be able to see Jeff in about 2 hours. at that point, I went back to the hotel room, put on my walking shoes, went for a half hour walk outside, had some lunch, then went back to the waiting room at 1:00. they said they'd call me on my cell phone but since I had not heard from them, I asked about Jeff. they checked in the recovery room, said he was awake and waiting for a room. then about 1:20 they told me to go to the recovery room. a nurse was waiting for me at the elevator and took me to Jeff, who was awake. he was still a little groggy and they were giving him morphine (even though he said his pain level was around a 1-2 (very low)). then around 2:30 he was taken to his room.

I hope your experience is as good as ours. kat

Hi Wicket,

good that you got some med for anciety. I couldn't make it through all this without them. We too had major trauma for both of us DWT and me some time abck at 2 different hospitals and that makes it so much worse to know could happen and its out of your control, you can't intervene, you can't see your loved one, you can only hope that everything goes right. Make sure so that you will not permit that a med. student, intern or even resident practices, learns or experiments on your husband. I know that they will promise you everything but if you don't have it in writing, THEY do what ever they want. THis knowledge is driving my to the emotional state I am in now. If one never had a bad experience with surgery, hospital, doctors you are so lucky. Wicket keep fighting for your husband and yourself don't take anything for grantid. Hope all goes well. I am still fighting for DWT. Cancer treatment HIFU in 10 days

SL

OOPS,
when DWT goes in. Yeah, we do all look alike in here...

SL,
Years ago, our oldest had her 3rd open heart surgery. The surgery was extremely risky. The other two saved her life...this one would either be successful and give her a life or it wouldn't. There wasn't a middle ground. There was no expectaion for survival but, that's what they said the last 2 times also.
We found the most skilled surgeon there was at the time. In fact, this man was brought here from Europe to do surgery on my daughter specifically. Every Resident and surgeon in the hospital grappled to get in to that operating room. I swear they drew straws to see who all was doing the operation with the man. He was the king of pediatric surgeons according to his pedegree; so confident 9 months before when he did the first of the two repairs. In that one he flat out said he didn't think he'd bring her off the table but he'd try...yikes! Well, I had heard that one before so to hear it again was no suprise.
The last thing he said to me is "Vickie, I'll take good care of her." 14 hours later and a boat load of complications later, I finally saw her. She was pink and perfect even on life support.. with one excpetion. The entire inside of her left calf was burned to the bone by an infiltrated drug! A drug burn...something always avoidable. At least it should never infiltrate to the point of doing the kind of horrible damage it had done. That was in 1986. That surgeon sees me frquently to this day and to this day hasn't said a single word to me. Nothing, not a word about anything. He's an idiot, a jack ass and always had a horrible bedside manner. Most people can't stand him as a person but most respect his work.

There is a story here....that being...If a parent said my child needs a surgeon, who can we trust?...my first response is still going to be this same surgeon! I won't use him. But that's because of the way HE handled himself,
not for the work he had done. Heck, it's been 20 years and no one at that hospital has ever mentioned a 9 inch 3rd degree burn on a childs leg. They'd just as soon forget it ever happened. My family has been treated there ever since.
Things do happen, that's true. Don't let one experience be the whole focus here in other words. DWT is in the hands of the man HE chose to do his procedure and you have to show trust in that man. If you two don't trust the surgeon....you better back out now. Other wise stop relating your bad experience to what you expect to happen to DW.That's just not right. It isn't fair to DW that he hasn't you failth in his Dr. He needs your support, not your doubt. Try dear.
Vickie

Hello Ellen,

Glad to hear things are moving forward smoothly, and that you have confidence in the urologist. Good luck with the up coming bone scan.

We are all thinking of both of you.

Glen

GreenAcres,

There is a spot in the middle of his spine that they took an xray of, but we think it's a place where Curtis has had the chiropractor work on quite often so is probably calcium deposit....at least that'w what we're hoping...guess we'll find out the results at the end of the week maybe.

SL,

Well those anti-anxiety pills do help.  I've been taking them for the last few weeks.  Curtis, on the other hand, seems to be one of those stoic men that Glen was talking about and would never think he needed anything like that.

Keep us informed and let us know how things are going with you and DWT...My thought are will you.