Old fart advice.........

…...from one old fart to the rest of you old farts, and what the heck, you younger guys too.

There are any number of life threatening/altering ailments out there, none of which we look forward to encountering. Perhaps the most common and daunting is a diagnosis of cancer. The "Big C" as the Duke used to call it.

Early last month I got up at my usual time, went to take the morning whizz and out comes some blood with it. I go back into the bedroom, wake up the bride, and say to her, "Happy Birthday dear.....we need to go to the ER....now". Yeah, it really was her birthday...….blew about 11 hours of that day with the exercise. Upshot of that whole deal was a relatively simple UTI, treated with antibiotics for 10 days. But, in the examination process, a CT scan was done of that lower body area. The Doc who reads the scan images covers pretty much all that he sees, so the report talks about the appearance of the blatter, prostate, my messed up lower vertebrae and discs and so on. Of note was a small growth on the right kidney. That seemed to get the attention of all the attending staff, not a panic response, but a litany of possibilities from low key to oh shit. That led to the scheduling of an MRI which gives a more definitive image. Apparently they do a lot of MRIs as that appointment was a couple weeks out. I've noticed that if the Docs see something at the more dangerous range of possibilities those schedules get shortened so I took that as a relatively positive sign.

Upshot of that was an identification as a level 3 Bosniak lesion. Stern look from the Doc reviewing the results with me while saying "We need to operate as soon as possible to remove that". Again, the schedule thing, and again, not in a panic so how bad could it be? Well, according to the internet info (Docs hate that to a degree) a level 3 has a history of 84% malignant. Okay, it's gotta go.

So this past Monday (btw, my brother's birthday, I sense a pattern) was the operation. They used a robotic system (not autonomous) made by a company named Davinci where the surgeon operates a couple joystick devices to manipulate all the hardware. They cut 5 holes in my belly area; one for a drain, one for a light, one for a camera, the others for tools. Minimally invasive, but the body still doesn't like being disrupted like that. They just cut out the afflicted section and patched the kidney. The lesion was about the size of a quarter, and no biopsy results yet, though the surgeon said to his eye it looked like the malignant type. The good news, so far, is no need for further chemo or radiation, and not much of a likelihood this sort of tumor would repeat or pop up somewhere else. Two and a half total days in the hospital and now at home just chillin' out letting all the stuff heal and waiting for the daily bodily functions to return to normal. Not allowed to drive for a couple weeks, no lifting of anything over 5 pounds for 4 weeks, and other restrictions out to 8 weeks, dependent on follow up observations. In the spectrum of awful things in general, and cancer specifically, this one ain't too bad near as we can tell. As Mike pointed out in his carpal tunnel posting, restricted activities are a bit of a pain for those accustomed to activity.

So, after that long blather, the advice is, if you see a Doc with some level of regularity try your darndest to get them to do a CT scan on your core body where most of the important hardware is. My growth was discovered by accident during such. Had it not been found now (that early detection thing) it might have grown to a level 4...……..which would have been one of those "operate this afternoon" things.

Good advice, my prostate is going to get it's picture taken next week, my PSA went up again. Getting old, is getting old.

i have had a chest xray every year since i was 25 . full blood work and all. 7 years ago they found a 1.2 cm spot on the outside of my lung. ct scan every 3 month and a pet scan at 2.1 cm . lost the upper lobe of left lung. had i not been diligent about my health i would have died 4 years ago .
i know i will die someday but it wont be from stupid .

I guess (in the grand scheme of things) that's good news Uncle Bob..
Some days I figure that getting old just plain sucks!
But there ain't crap I can really do about it. Is there?
I got to many doctors in my life now. Can't imagine the times comin' where there will be more! We're dealing with the ageing parents deal now.
The wifes parents are gone so this time it hits much closer.
Now that I've strayed from topic... sorry! I'm so glad you're still here and will regale us with unique thoughts and diatribe in the future!

Bob when you started out I thought sure you were heading toward kidney stones. That's the way I found out I had them about 40 years ago. I have had them go up through the you know what and break them up and as the Dr said we drag them out. The last one was 17 M.M. they used a laser on him. By the way if anyone has to have them out the laser is the way to go. Good luck with your 5 holes healing up and other things getting to normal. Getting old is getting old (74 )

Glad you got it caught early. Cancer doesn't show symptoms untill it too late.

Thanks for posting that Bob and glad to hear that everything appears to be looking good on the recovery.

I can feel for you on the inactivity and cabin fever that you are/will be going thru.......it sucks but is a good time to plan future projects :D

In the words of my friends here, don't try to rush the healing process you'll be back at it when you can.

My wife also passed on some good advice to me for those days that I'm really bored......"PUT THE CREDIT CARD DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER"

Now I'm thinking that was more of a suggestion... but with women you never know. ;)



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That's good you caught it early! I along with a ton of others know you should go to the doctors on a regular basis, but it falls on deaf ears sometimes. ..

Good thing you caught it early Uncle Bob! Jackie and I both went through the catching cancer early lessons, so far she's 8 years cancer free and I'm at 10 years. With all the new technology in the medical field if cancer is caught early it can be treated most of the time, but as you say we all need to pay closer attention to health issues as we age!

I thought I might chime in. I'm only 49, but...

I mentioned somewhere on this forum that I blew my back out about six weeks ago. Just putting a piece of wood into the stove. Not a huge piece mind you, it is a small stove.

Anyway. Yesterday I picked something (small) up by BENDING AT THE WAIST!

How amazing is that, huh?

One change I made recently, and I can't discount its significance; correlation not indicating causation and all: I completely stopped drinking soda (mellow yellow) and started drinking local bottled water (lots). I feel better over all.

Anything to do with the back doing better? Who knows.

Moral is: if you're trying to heal, every bit counts.

Wow, Uncle Bob, so glad this news has a positive spin!!! Hoping & praying for a speedy recovery!!!;)

You've been pretty quiet lately.
Still; I suppose that no news is good news.
How are you?

Thanks for askin' jb, for the most part doin' fine. Been a couple weeks since cleared from restricted activity so now I'm trying to get back to normal activity. I seem to get tired a bit more easily, but two months of very low physical activity probably left some atrophy to overcome. All in all, life goes on.

Well Fri the 31st I lost the upper right Lobe. Did the robotics this time. Much better . Home in 3 days but still moving
slow . Hope this is the last time. They're stripping me down like a stolen buick.

wow 2 guys on the mend. That's a good thing you guys take it slow and easy. Praying for quick and full recovery

Bob, Shine good to hear your both mending up OK.

I got done with my occupational therapy and Dr visits a couple of months ago and think I'm pretty much towards the end of the period of building back up to the level of activity where I was before the surgery.

That takes time too and in the beginning I was really beginning to wonder if I wasn't going to be relegated to being the old man sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair.

I still don't feel like I'm completely back where I was but in the 90-95% range (still feel I get tired easier).....good thing too, putting the new house in has involved taking down and putting fences back up, locating and digging up some water lines and today will be trimming back some trees for a power line.

Just hang in there guys.


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You too Mike.
Shine, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Got those nice red/bruised cuts down your front eh? They just glued me shut, no staples or thread, you?

Went in under my rib cage in back. Impossible to get comfortable to sleep. Sleeping in my recliner .
My torso is so large i ended up with 7 holes instead of 5 . Lucky me . 2 more weeks before release to limited activity . Hell of a way to get a vacation . But maybe I bought enough time to get troy raised to manhood . Yeah they used glue to close. Same as last time.

Wow, glad you both are on the mend! Tough ordeals, but it sure as heck beats the alternative!

Getting better is good!

I'm mending nicely also: two adjacent crushed bulging discs.

A few months back I completely blew out my back, literally couldn't walk for half a day. Muscle relaxers and naproxen got me through. It was a month before I could put my socks and shoes on without major pain.

The VA finally approved chiropractic and it's helping, and I'm making a definite effort to be mindful of everything that I do. All throughout the day I'll do "hanging stretches" and I force my posture very straight.

Anyway, I don't expect to ever be pain free, nor to bend over and pick up more than 50 pounds again, but I'm back active and mobile so that is good.

Get an inversion table. If used regularly they do wonders .