Now that i am on the other side of an
open rp I thought I would share some of my observations. Tuesday was my operation date and I am at home feeling pretty perky. ON TRAINING FOR THE MAIN EVENT-I really feel like it paid off. I am a runner and was cranking out 20 miles/ week beforehand. That's not marathon shape but it aint bad! All the nurses told me I was doing extremely well. I don't know if they tell that to everybody(probably). Also I dropped most all fat out of my diet. I was vegan for about
a week- no
cookies-no icecream- nochips- no red meat. I did this for the 7 weeks post biopsy presurgery. I dropped 10 pounds from my skinny ass and flew like the wind when I went running. Honestly I wasn't in that great of shape since I was 35. ON PAIN- after surgery they dosed me with 2mg morphine for pain every 4 hours. I had pain, definitely, but it was not screaming. It was uncomfortable for sure. I would go 5 hours or so and it would let me know that I should be doing something. Being the MAN that I am naturally I stretched it out. What I found interesting was that when the nurses did their rounds and checked my blood pressure I could see an obvious difference between with and without pain med. w/o med my blood pressure would elevate maybe 20% above my normal numbers which are fairly low 135/80 vs 114/70. Nurses said dropping the blood pressure would help stop bleeding and promote healing. It's not all in your head. So I learned avoiding pain in some situations is an important medical concept with ramifications in healing. MY POOR SORE BACK- the first 24 hours I basicly did not move. My surgery started at 7:30AM (first up baby!) and at 5:00 AM I was in distress. Nurse came in and was going to dose me but I decided to do the walkabout
and touch the door. The reason they kept me down the first night was the blood in my urine. Anyway I took my first steps and went to climb back into bed and found about
60% of my pain was from my back! That part of it was gone at least temporarily. I think if I could get a massage in the hospital- I would definitely go for it. That would be good. THE CATHETER-Now that I have worn it for 6 days- it aint no bid deal. BOWEL MOVEMENT- "And on the fourth day there was movement". That was another joyfull benchmark I achieved. I was actually worried about
it. One of the problems with being down like this is too much time to make big deals out of nothing. I started the stool softeners and took them twice. I have been eating hi fiber and it all works out. Patience grasshopper.
So I am on the road to recovery. No tylenol for the past 24 hours. I have walked 2-3 miles for the last 2 days and will be going 3 today. My catheter is coming out thursday (hopefully) and maybe my path report will be back by then. I was very nervous going into this thing about my surgeon. Both my wife and I felt very good about him when I made the decision. Then I started reading on line and I wavered. Every indication at this point is that he IS the steeley eyed surgeon everyone hopes for. His name is Ehud Zusman. He practices in Portland Oregon. I would recommend him to Anyone.