good morning all,
i am beginning to feel better and better. one week to th day after
laprospoic surgery.
today the catheter comes out. and thank goodness. maybe these things
are written about in the books; but the short time between being
diagnosed with PCA (gleason 8 psa9.8) and surgery didn't leave me much
time or emotional energy to read everything possible. i spent all of my
time reading all i could and making decisions about what to do anyway.
so... the catheter is only a small part of this process. they put it in
then you're left trying t deal with the thing. from the 1st night in
recovery we had troubles. the hospital gave me all kind of things to
take home, even extra bags and all sorts of goodies and booklets to read
so it isn't about them being cheap. the hospital bed was high up yet the
tube got blocked several times that 1st infamous night when i got less
than 2 hrs. sleep. so the nurse tried everything to move it along so the
air block wouldn't leave me feeling like i had to urinate.
then at home we awoke during the night to make sure the same thing
didn't happen which it did to a lesser degree.
the 1st walk we took out side had the bag slide down my leg, pulling
the tube out a few inches. i was told it will over in and out on its own
anyway so as long as it still drains into the bag you're fine. which it
did. but it started to leak when i was active. so i put some tissue
there so my basketball pants didn't look wet.
even with the extra straps, the worry of it slipping hampered me
somewhat. the real trick was the taped patch they put on my leg to keep
the tube in place. i kept the ' 'wye' split where the air pump terminal
and the drain tube are located on at this junction of tape. that was the
life saver.
with recovery, when something goes wrong; like my first night after the
operation when i was up the entire night in awful pain; the anticipation
of worry is actually more of an issue than what ever actually goes
wrong. i mean that for several nights after that night i was actually
afraid to go to bed.
maybe the books talk about these things and as a veteran it's easy to
remember what to do, but when you're thrown into this experience even
the simplist things become terrifying. well, the best part to remember
is that part is behind me. ~ greg  ps... today is the pathology
report....