Group Hugs for Walt *same_as_u… & Updates from Walt

Walt & Diane,

It's 8:30 p.m. EST and you have been on my mind all day today!!!  Please ~ stay close and know we are all here… waiting to hear from you as soon as you get settled “back home”. 

Keeping you extra close ~ sharing our strength and warmth!!!

In Friendship ~ Lee & Buddy

Walt & Diane,

As you continue your journey this week take heart in this old Irish blessing,

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

Looking forward to hearing from you on the other side.

Tamu

Hi Walt and Diane,

Thinking of you guys in this, your very difficult and scary time. You will be just fine in just a few days. Hope you'll chime in when your up to it and tell us all how easy it all went. Best wishes to both of you.

 

Magaboo

Hey Walt & Diane, I remember the last couple of days before my surgery. Worried about pain, about incontinence, about gettin back to work, and most of all about whether the surgery would remove all the PCa. I share your anxiety! It turned out that the surgery was really easy. I felt pretty good immediately after and great within a few hours -- walking and hardly any pain. Went home the next day -- and ultimately all was well. You, too, will find this part of your journey as one of the easiest. You'll do fine on Friday -- I'm sure of it! Look forward to your reports from the other side!

Walt & Diane,

It will be all over before you know it. When I woke up in recovery I asked the nurse when I was going in for surgery to which she replied, "It's all over with young man, and you're going to be fine."

It's surreal how everything leading up to surgery suddenly vanishes once your back in your room after surgery. It's all an afterthought once you've reached the other side, and all your focus will now be on your recovery. You will be in my prayers this evening. Good luck, have faith and we'll all be waiting for you with a welcome hand.

Jack

Good thought, best wishes and prayer go with you and your family on your journey to the other side.  See ya there!

Hey Walt,

You are ready! Now become a cheerleader for you surgical team. The only things you can take into the OR are your naked body and a great attitude.

See ya on the other side...

Jim

     Thanks to all of you for your good wishes, prayers and thoughts for me. 

 

     I am in a pretty good frame of mind with this being my sixth day after RP surgery.  The toughest part is behind me, namely making the decision for my type of treatment.  I cannot emphasize enough how much of a role this forum played in helping reach that decision and finding the fortitude to go through with it.  Bluebird and Doug were especially pillars of strength for me.

 

     On my first night home, as I selected my pajama bottoms to wear, a huge smile came over me.  I never could figure out why bluebird mentioned in their journey cutting pajamas from the waist to the thigh.  As soon as selected the short bottoms, I realized the path for the catheter tube was the reason.  Diane made the cuts the next day so that I could wear the long legged pj’s which I prefer. 

 

     My daily activities have been going ok.  I finally started regular bm’s without milk of magnesia yesterday – those 15 minute walks do wonders.  My biggest concern is leaking where the catheter tube comes out of my penis.  Strangely, this only occurs when I empty the bag or am seated doing a bm.  I figure that the leaking when I am emptying my bag is because everything is closed from the bag to the other end of the catheter; there is no air coming into the bag as the urine empties out.  I have tried emptying smaller amounts then waiting one minute and continuing until the bag is not all the way empty.  This has helped a lot.

 

     I was discharged Sunday, and my days have been walking, resting, eating and working at my computer.  After the good results of walking on Wednesday and Thursday I realized that I spent too much time at the computer on Monday and Tuesday.  Of course that is the most enjoyable; it is simply taking too much time away from the walking and rest where the benefits are.  From now on, I am trying to limit computer time to 30 minutes sandwiched between a walk and rest or two walks.

 

     Please excuse the lengthy post.  It is good to have come this far, and I truly can’t thank all of you enough.

 

Walt

Walt,

Take it easy, keep up the walks and smell the roses! Life is good!

God Bless,
Susan

Hello Walt,

I hope your recovery is going smoothly, and that you will be back in fighting trim shortly. Keep up with your exercises, and don't pickup anything heavier than a 1/2 gal. of milk.

Glen

  Hey ~ Walt & Diane,   Thinking of you and wanted you to know!   We’ve been traveling and are settling in for a few weeks… but we needed to let you know that our thoughts and prayers travel with us!!!   We hope you’ve felt the love and strength we have been sending your way… Hope things are progressing well for you both.  As time permits ~ please touch base with an update!!  Continuing to keep you close. In Friendship ~ Lee & Buddy

This post is one small way that I may be able to start to pay back all of you who have helped me through this over the past eight months.

Here I am five weeks since RP surgery. One of my biggest concerns started three weeks before surgery. I did not care that my former employer discharged me one month after learning that I had cancer; it was one of the few jobs that I ever took strictly for the money, and I don’t like working that way. Three weeks prior to surgery he contested my receiving unemployment which meant in PA that I had to go through the trauma of a court hearing. For whatever reason that anticipation was very stressful for me – day and night. It occupied my thoughts continuously even to the extent of not keeping current on this forum.

Regardless of this mental stress the surgery and weeks following went so well that I could not have hoped for better results. I was always under the impression that mental stress can have dire consequences on things like surgery – happily that was definitely not the case this time. Maybe because I slept through it???

A couple more details: The company owner was described by the HR director as “Tight as paint on a car.” As I expected, at the hearing (which I postponed until two weeks after surgery) were the employer’s corporate attorney, my supervisor, my supervisor’s boss and the VP who was the son of the owner. The owner works these people frequently until 8 or 9 PM because they are salaried and therefore those are free labor hours to him. I figured these four would be at the hearing because these are still free labor hours – they just had to share one car to keep the parking rates down. By the way, I won the case. The complaints against me: I used the company phone for personal calls (including to doctors & hospitals) and I was late on a project. Amazingly only my supervisor knew the project was significantly redesigned two weeks into my working on it. The real stress to me was letting my mind wander to whatever could possibly be said – and never was. The message I am trying to convey is that if you have personal stress it is not necessarily going to affect your surgical outcome - mine didn't and most of it turned out to be imaginary.

Walt