Easter email from Peterborough

Luisa sent us this email on April 26.

Hello family!  I hope you are all well.  We are great :)  April has been a busy month as we gear up for our big two storey addition starting May 1st.  Mark and his friends took a day to demolish a small room off the kitchen and an old garage, to make way for the new build.  

And now, with our garage gone, Mark has designed and is building a shed at the end of our garden, with the help of friends and his brother Stephen.  What a handy bunch they all are!  Its quite a big shed, but I've been told by many how quickly it will fill up!

Jonty's vocabulary is growing very quickly.  We think he is up to about 15 words now.  He loves balls and sticks.  Everything is a ball--the moon, our curtain rod ends, oranges...very cute.  

On Easter weekend we had the pleasure of having Claire with us.  








She and Jonty loved playing together--




we went to the zoo, the park, the market, 


they played in the house, the backyard, went for walks...it was a blast.  

On Easter Sunday, Oma and Grampa Mac organized an Easter Egg hunt for the two of them, which they loved.


Chuss!


Luisa, Jonty and Mark

Happy 96th, Aunty Bessie

Today Aunty Bessie turned ninety-six (96) years old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTY BESSIE !!!

Aunty Bessie in her early twenties, Durban Bay

This, too, shall pass - encouragement from friends

This is a follow-on from my previous posts,
Goodbye Prostate. Goodbye Old Friend - Apr 7
The Picture of Health (Almost) - Apr 25



I have a few friends who have had prostate surgery of one form or another whom I emailed for a metaphorical shoulder to cry on. Here are their responses.

Firstly, from a friend who does not have prostate cancer but another prostate condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) - the chief symptom being inability to urinate.

Welcome to the club. I have been lucky as I go for a checkup once a year. I have had two TURPS, kind of reaming out the prostate like coring an apple. So far, so good.
(For TURP see Transurethral resection of the prostate.)

Then this rather sanguine response from another good friend who was, indeed, diagnosed with prostate cancer:

I'll keep you in my prayers indeed. All will go well.  There is no need to cry.  It is like losing the appendix.

Like losing the appendix? WAS I MISSING SOMETHING? Then I received this more sobering, and lengthy missive (at least by today's email standards) from another good, old friend:

Well, I suppose that's sort of good news - at least it's caught in time (mine was diagnosed just before the heart surgery, so it was first things first, but I think it was also probably a bit far down the track by then even).  Maybe you will be spared some of the stuff I have had - like the erectile function which just never came back, and the incontinence which is sort of OK but when I get tired (or have a beer or glass of wine) then it's on with the pads.


My brother in law (who is about 7 years older than I am) had a prostatectomy about a year ago and everything went fine - he had a post-op catheter for about 2 days(!) and no incontinence, etc.  I don't know how that works.


I don't know if this is a nice thing to do, but someone I know did it for me and at least I wasn't caught unawares - i.e. warn you about some of the things that go on.  I was spoiled by the heart surgery - when you have that everyone treats you like someone special (I mean the hospital staff do).  The prostate was something else - you're just a normal surgery patient.  I have to remind myself that it took a long time to recover from the heart stuff, but the post-op prostate things were definitely more uncomfortable.  The catheter for two weeks was not nice.  Make sure they really do give you a big enough bag - the hospital gave me about a 200ml bag and it was after a few hours after discharge that I realised it wasn't going to last me a night and then the friend (above) went off and got me a 2 litre bag from the pharmacy - and a metal stand thing so that it hangs at the right orientation at night and for walking around with.  Very useful.


The Kegel exercises are a must.  It's weird how this thing that you've done automatically all your life suddenly has to become a willed thing.  For me the first week or so after the catheter came out were not enjoyable.  I seemed to have absolutely no control and it felt like I was never going to come right.  But then I started counting how long it took to empty my bladder when I went to the loo - because the longer it took meant the more I was able to retain.  When I got to about 17-18 seconds regularly I knew I was on the mend.


Anyway, in the end it seems to come right, so none of the above is intended to discourage you.  Remember the wise words from some unknown wise person: "This too shall pass".

This, too, shall pass? Is he talking about the urethra or the catheter or the side effects?

Thank you, my good friends, for being there. It's nice to know I'm not the first and I'm not alone.

This, too, shall pass...

Aunty Bessie with her present

The son of Aunty Bessie's neighbour sent us this picture with the comment:
We just wanted to send you a photo of how cute Bessie looks in the gown you gave her.
Regards
Ken

The Picture of Health (Almost)

I had my pre-op medical exam with my GP today. He tells me that, apart from a touch of cancer, I'm in perfect health with nothing to worry about. Great!

CN Tower Climb for Species At Risk

I received this email from Judith which I pass along (ever so slightly edited)...

Hi Everyone,

I am climbing the CN Tower this Saturday for fun, for a physical challenge, but most importantly to raise awareness about species at risk especially for those in Canada.

You can help in a number of ways:

1) Join me this Saturday to climb the CN Tower

2) Discuss this event and the importance of raising awareness of the species we live on this earth with who are at risk of becoming endangered and extinct

3) Sponsor me by donating to my climb. You can give cash, cheque, or more easily online at http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3281481&langPref=en-CA (tax receipts will be provided for donations over $20)

For those of you who cannot sponsor me, thank you for your support. Please pass this along to any friends and family who you think may be interested.

Thank you :)

Judith McCann

Below I have provided some species that are currently at risk. The information comes directly from Species at Risk Public Registry.

Species at risk can be threatened, extirpated, endangered, or of special concern

There are about 870 species at risk in Canada. For an idea of what they are you can visit: http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/sar/index/default_e.cfm 

The Wood Bison (Threatened)

Peary Caribou (Endangered)

Eskimo Curlew (Endangered.. possibly extinct)

Short Tailed Albatross (Threatened)

Soapweed (Threatened)

Black Footed Ferret (Extirpated)

Grey Fox (Threatened)

Butlers Gartersnake (Threatened)

Spotted Turtle (Endangered)

The Holy Thursday Foot Washing - Chapter Two

On Good Friday of last year I blogged on the foot washing ceremony in Catholic churches on Holy Thursday in the post, The Holy Thursday Foot Washing - Is the point being lostbecause of legalism?  I opined that the "select men only" rule and the pain and dissension around that rule could lead some priests to decide simply to omit that ceremony from the Maundy Thursday liturgy. It gives me no pleasure or satisfaction to say, "I told you so" but... I told you so. I heard yesterday of at least one parish in the Toronto Archdiocese where the priest's attempt to introduce and enforce the "selected men (only)" rule sparked such outrage in the parish community that he decided it would be better not to have the foot washing at all.

That is not a solution, It is a cop-out.

Goodbye Prostate. Goodbye Old Friend.

Many of you who have previously read my Movember blogs or my post on Global Warming and My Prostate will know that my urologist and I have been actively, vigilantly and diligently watching a tiny, slow-growing cancer in my prostate for the last 5 years, and suspecting the existence of one for 2 years before that.

The time for mere vigilance is over.

I am scheduled to have a radical prostatectomy early  next month.

In theory this should remove all the cancer but we will only know that with reasonable certainty after the urologist gets the follow up pathology report which should confirm the grade of cancerous cells in the prostate and whether any cancer has spread to the surrounding lymph nodes - very unlikely but worth checking.

I expect to be in hospital for 2 days after surgery. Initial recovery time is 4 to 6 weeks. I am not supposed to do heavy lifting or vigorous exercise for 3 months. (I believe that includes mowing the lawn and washing the dishes.) For both medical and insurance reasons I should not attempt to drive a car for a full month after surgery.

The most significant side effects for me, which are supposed to be temporary, are incontinence and erectile dysfunction. In my case I'm not going to worry too much about infertility...

I'll have a catheter for about 2 weeks. The benefit of that is that I won't have to get up at night, even if I drink a couple of beers before going to bed, as the bag takes 2 litres. After the catheter comes out I'll be peeing my pants for a few months whenever I cough, sneeze, flatulate or otherwise exert myself. I've already started my Kegel exercises to speed up recovery but I guess I'll be relying on ultimate masculine hygiene pads for men for a while.

The ED is another story. The bad news is that this takes a lot longer to restore than the pee-control. The good news is that I am eligible for nerve-sparing surgery which gives me a better chance of recovering the ability for spontaneous erections or, more likely, erections with help from little pills like Viagra. Getting up in the morning will never be the same again, I'm afraid.

Why now, so quickly?

By doing it now I can have the nerve-sparing surgery. If the cancer is allowed to spread or become more aggressive then that window of opportunity will close.

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. - Macbeth

How do I feel about it?

...not very thrilled, as you can imagine, and somewhat disappointed that I could not continue the active vigilance stage a while longer. As Pooh Bear said of Eeyore and his tail, I'm very fond of it and definitely attached to it. (E.E. Milne. Winnie the Pooh, Chapter 4.) I know I will miss it. But it helps to keep things in perspective and remember that this is happening not because of the surgery but because of the cancer. All these side effects, and worse, will happen to me anyway, permanently, if I leave the cancer untreated.

Many thousands of men have been through this before me. I need to be grateful: my prognosis is excellent because we have been watching it so closely all this time. To the men among you let me say that if you are over 40 and have not had a baseline PSA test yet, please ask your doctor to order this test for you. In Canada 1 in 7 men gets prostate cancer and it is the most common cause of cancer death among men in Canada. Yet it is highly treatable if caught early enough.

To the women among you: if your man is over forty and has not had his baseline PSA test, get him to read this post. This is one area where a woman is allowed to nag. It is a known fact that a large number of men finally get their prostates checked just to stop their wives and partners from nagging. It's all good!