Had a friend and former colleague around for coffee. It was great to see him and hear all about the good ship RMIT 💀. So important to keep up contacts. I have not been very assiduous in doing so, but intend to improve! A special hello to any former colleague reading this. Nil carborundum illegitimi.

I got my lovely Raymond Weil automatic back from being fixed. I got this from RMIT (and Der Fisch) on attaining 25 years in my sentence career there. Sentimental value only now – I have knocked it around over the years – but beautifully legible.

Anyone have a vote for their favourite euphemism for the male organ of generation? I have three candidates thus far. I have used the first two in email correspondence, and my brother helpfully reminded me of the third. The list to date

1. dangly bits
2. the old fella
3. todger.

Any and all other suggestions gratefully received. Please comment and share! I wonder if there is a list, or book, somewhere that rounds up all the permutations. I reckon that the pyjama python (in Barry Humphries’ alliterative phrase) must attract more slang terms than any other organ. Again, if anyone knows of such a list, I would be interested in your suggestions.

Anyway, whatever you would like me to call it, I am having some sensitivity at the top of the catheter. This is being controlled fairly well with a couple of ointments – Otic, usually used for ear ailments, and a Novocaine-based one – and a cold bag. Looking forward to Monday, when the catheter comes out, thank goodness.

We got the paving in the courtyard sealed the other day. As suggested, I threw a glass of water on it, and it is fascinating to watch the water bead up – just like on a newly waxed car. I am watching Jill water out there right now. There is an automatic system, but the designer said to give the beds supplementary watering on hot days, while things are still establishing themselves. Maybe we can have a drink out there when she has finished.

Some of the meds have an unexpected side effect or two. This I suspect is mainly the Endone. I was telling der Fisch about Sam Dastyari, and got very emotional and teary about it. (Not that I have any brief for Sam Dastyari; but this aggressive racial abuse is just dreadful.) l think it was possibly the Endone that was making me a bit labile emotionally. (I looked up the side effects just now and it isn’t listed among them, so maybe I should just attribute it to fatigue.)

Otherwise things not going too badly. The ointments are having the effect that they are meant to have,so I am feeling much less discomfort  when I sit or stand..

The warmer weather has enabled me to get out of the track pants I have been wearing since I came home, into some lighter weight ones. Feels good also to put on a shirt I don’t wear very often. A very sweet get well card from one of my nephews and his partner addressed to “Uncle Guy” was very touching.  I am finding it easier to bend over and get up from a chair, so some abdominal strength possibly returning. Small things like this are good for morale. I also did some emailing, declining a regular meeting that I just didn’t feel up to, and trying to make a time for a visit from a friend. I will have to rename myself the Lothario of the laptop!

I saw my GP this morning and got a couple of suggestions to relieve some sensitivity at the top of the catheter tube. (Happy to post the drug names if anyone is interested; just being a bit lazy to get up and fetch them!) I have applied them both and taken another Endone (got some more of those as well). If they fix this problem, I will be more comfortable when sitting, getting up, etc. So far so good. The good doctor also suggested that, if I experienced itchiness as the wound healed, to take some antihistamines, as available in Zyrtec, etc.

Currently sitting in the study listening to Rach 3 (the symphony, not the concerto) on my nice old tube stereo, from 3MBS-FM digital. Der Fisch is out at yoga. All good. We looked at some nice jewellery this morning after seeing the GP. She has looked after me so well I feel she deserves a little something; not thanks, just appreciation. Things to do:

• contact prostate surgery support group
• have a beard trim
• install recording software on my laptop and 
• record an old vinyl set (Charpentier, Lecons de Tenebrae). I also want to 
• track down a work that I heard on ABC Classic FM, a suite based on Wagner’s Meistersingern von Nürnberg, arranged by Mark Wigglesworth (the conductor of the SSO on this occasion). I hope this concert is available on Listen Again. Actually, I just looked on their web site, and if it is there, it’s beyond my powers to find it! (I have given up on sending emails to find out whether something is available on Listen Again, or when the truly atrocious web site is going to be fixed.) I think the ABC has a burying department instead of a marketing department.

I have changed the appearance of the blog by using a different theme. Seem to be finding it hard to get away from the library look! The font is different too. You may notice a new page listed in the Sidebar too, References and links.

So what does a day look like when recovering from prostate surgery? I omit things like emptying leg bag in the following.

2.00 am wake up, fetch whisky, have BM (aka number two)
2.30 The previous step having been rather protracted, fall asleep for another hour. Wake up, have drink (first since operation). Delicious! Johnny Walker Green. Read Forest dark, by Nicole Krauss; unfortunately rather stimulating.
Get up perhaps an hour later, disconnect and empty night bag. Put on PJs and bring cup of tea back to bed. (Der Fisch still asleep.) Read & fall asleep myself an hour or so.
7.00 Get up, empty leg bag . More tea, Der Fisch’s coffee (important step this one!). We sit in the study and have that.
Breakfast: rye toast, orange marmalade, more tea.  Got to keep up those fluids!
Shower. Have to change leg bag straps. (There are two sets of straps, three in each. One set gets wet when one has a shower; change to dry set from yesterday. Hang wet straps up to dry.)
Wash out night bag and hang in main bathroom. Buy a Bluetooth keyboard and car mobile phone holder online. Get call back from nurse at urologist’s clinic; very helpful.
10.30 We set out, with alcohol wipes and a spare pad, to Camberwell Junction. On the list: more undies for Guy from Target (classy!), pick up library book, dry cleaning ditto, have coffee, buy toast loaf and salad for lunch. Go to jeweller’s to pick up watch that is being repaired. Find that I have misremembered message and watch not ready for collection. Explain that I had had surgery that day and doubtless was still full of anaesthetic.
12.30? Not hungry after large date scone (very nice, though!) My book has arrived; Gödel, Escher, Bach, by Richard Hofstadter. Have another Endone (bit of pain – discomfort where the catheter tube enters). We watch first two parts of Sunshine, recorded from SBS; excellent! Lie down for an hour (this is good for the wound).
Get up; feeling only moderate (discomfort around top of tube). Read some more of the Nicole Krauss. Jill cleans out garage; l do a blog entry, and show her how to switch on watering system along driveway. Have had Endone; great!
7.00 Lentil soup for dinner and a pear. Appetite a bit problematic with pain and Endone (synthetic opiate).
Watch Crimson Tide, quite a decent submarine flick. Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington.
10.00 Bed; hook up night bag, clean teeth, have meds, read a bit more. (NB the night bag thing is much easier with a nightgown; fortunately I had one in the bottom drawer, never used.) Lights out about eleven.

Apart from insomnia, Endone and night bag, fairly normal Saturday or Sunday!

So how did all this start?

When I was having treatment for something quite unrelated (low iron), a blood test showed my PSAs to be abnormally high. Following this I found a urologist, had more blood tests, a biopsy and scans; these revealed an aggressive cancer in the prostate and pelvic lymph nodes. Suggested treatment was surgery, then radiotherapy (if required). Why not the other way? Apparently radiotherapy makes scans less successful in that it affects the tissues. So radio will be adjunct therapy, if  required.

Fortunately my urologist’s practice supports its patients well by coaching them life without a prostate. This means training in how to strengthen pelvic floor muscles, and how to use these to reduce urinary incontinence.

So what next? The catheter  will be  removed in five days’ time. Fortunately, having done Pilates for years, my PFMS are quite good. Will there be accidents? Of course; life goes on. Would you rather have your prostate in the grave, or have a good life without it? I’m still me, still a man, still loved. Sound ok?

And the low iron? Still to be resolved. First things first.

OK, will do this post by hand. it is pretty good, in the main. The handwriting software recognises your scrawl pretty well and moves everything to the left so you don’t have to move your hand.
Main problem is the insomnia. ..Because I can’t exercise very much, I do wake really early in spite of being drugged up to the eyeballs when I do go bed.So I woke up nearly 3 hours ago.Got up, made a cup of tea, fired up the tablet and read my FB page. Now having a shot at updating my blog. Of course, after lets’s say four hours’ sleep, you’re really going to feel like exercising! Medication: Stilnox, Belsomra, Endone, and a whisky (the  last about two am). can resume exercise in about four weeks. Tablet down to 22% so will have to stop soon. . .Get up, empty night bag, read more of Nicole Krauss book. This is Forest Dark, her new novel. Very good indeed!

Patrick Radden Keefe, The family that built an empire of pain. The New Yorker, October 2017. This is the Longform version of this story. Apparently the link I posted first doesn’t work – apologies. Just click on the title of the story in the Longform page. This is a long but fascinating story from the New Yorker about the family that developed and marketed Oxycontin.

Finally finished Danubia, by Simon Winder. This is an extremely entertaining history of the Habsburg Empire. Sounds impossible? Give it a go. The author seems to have read everything on the subject, travelled inexhaustibly, enthused endlessly, and organised an empire of material better than the Habsburgs could (with very few exceptions) manage.

Nicole Krauss, Forest dark. About half way through this; most accomplished and intriguingly autobiographical. I am liking it more than Lincoln in the bardo, which was … interesting (“noice, interesting, different”) … but more in concept than in execution. So why didn’t this win the Booker? That’s enough meanness for one day!

Had a little excursion today, as ever with der Fisch (will explain this later). Went to Bunnings to get a plug for the ensuite basin and some Dynamic Lifter. The former they didn’t have in the exact size, but we got one 2 mm smaller. Fortunately it has a large flange on top, so the water will sit on top of the plug. The DL was the opposite problem; smallest size available was 18.5 kg. I obviously can’t lift anything at present, and Der Fisch couldn’t manage it. So she bought a smaller bag on our way home. This was not mega-exciting, but was enough excitement for me, as I sneezed while on our way there. This really hurts like buggery, although it wears off. Anyway, I have had an Endone now, having also emptied the bag and changed the pad, and am feeling comfortably insulated. (My first E for the day.)

Better explain Der Fisch. A saying I heard on cricket commentary years ago was to say (admiringly) of someone that they had an eye like a dead fish. This is true of no-one more than my darling wife, whose name I am, for finicking web security reasons, not publishing on this blog. Anyway, the German for this translates (as near as I can manage) to Ein Auge ungefähr ein Fisch tot. (This is probably wrong.)

Welcome to my blog. I am creating it to enable me to communicate more easily with my family and friends (who, let’s face it, will be the only ones interested!). If you are reading this it’s because I sent you the link. If you just stumbled across it, good for you. It is just going to be a record of my recovery from a prostatectomy. There won’t be any reviews (except of books I’m reading) or anything remotely fancy.