After some three weeks of waiting for Kaiser's approval of the brachy treatment, word finally arrived that the procedure is scheduled for February 11.
Let the games begin.
Preparation includes lab tests: EKG, CHEST X-RAY, CBC, PT/INR, PTT, COMPREHENSIVE METABOLOIC PANEL, SGOT. (SGOT? What the heck is SGOT? For that matter, what is CBC, PT/INR, or PTT? Ah the things we learn as we shift chairs here in God's Waiting Room.)
Two weeks prior to the procedure, no intake of any of the various blood thinner, pain relievers and other assorted goodies such as aspirin, etc.
On February 5 there will be a Pre OP Visit at the Arnold Palomer Prostste Center, no less, which is followed hard upon on the 6th by a Pre Surgical Interview by phone with the hospital.
A clear liquid diet begins the day before the procedure; a ten ounce ingestion of Citrate of Magnesium is ordered for 4:00 p.m. on the 10th. (Ugh!)
The Seed Implant begins at 7:15 a.m.
On the 12th there's a Post Op Visit at the APPC.
On March 11 there will be a Ct Scan.
In the meantime, no children upon the lap. Stay 1 meter away from pregnant women. (That'll be easy. There are precious few pregnant women in my senior citizen circle here in Palm Springs.)
And there, Dear Gentle Reader(s), you have it.
As a side note, many people who have heard my tale of the original physician's suggestion for preventive maintenance against prostate cancer (an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away--more or less) scoffed, smirked, or sniggered at the suggestion. Here's another anecdote related by a different doctor, some several years later:
The good doctor (name withheld in case I could get him or myself in trouble), upon hearing of Dr Keith's (I don't mind naming him; he has passed on, alas--charming man) recommendation, said that he agreed. He then told me of one of his patients, to whom he had made the same suggestion, who was a devout Catholic. It seems the good doctor had to write a note for the patient's confessor in order for the confessor to grant absolution during the sacrament of Confession. (n.b. Unbridled Onanism is considered a significant error by some of the RC persuasion.)
Imagine. A note from your doctor excusing you from punishment for masturbation!
Agape. Be in good health.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Brachy Chronicles 4 -- The Next Step
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Just about 1 year from now...
exactly, the United States will have a new president.
Tempus fugit! (It is to be devoutely wished!)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Grey Lady's Step to Redemption
Over at Trust but Verify, and Take That, RWNS, there has been an effort to take The New York Times to task for various editorial decisions which are felt, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to be deleterious to the health of the body politic.
Today one must laud the Grey Lady for publishing a column by Bob Herbert, "Politics and Misogyny." In it, Herbert delineates the various ways in which women are dehumanized in our society and the boorish and criminal behavior which such dehumanization fosters.
It is a must read.
Money quote, "We’ve become so used to the disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous and even violent treatment of women that we hardly notice it."
Herbert offers evidence of quotidian misogyny and invites a national discussion about the problem.
Kudos to Herbert and to The New York Times.
Let the national conversation begin.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Words, Words, Words
Dear Gentle Reader(s), take the phrase "African American," (please). What think'st thou upon first hearing it?
For me, the first thought is that it is a direct descendant of socially acceptable terms used to modify citizens of the United States whose ancestors were brought over on a slave ship in the 17th and 18th centuries. (A superficial search indicates the slave trade was outlawed in 1808.)
If that particular lineage is most commonly used, then what does one do with Senator Obama, whose mother is a white woman from Kansas, and his father a Kenyan?
Isn't the disconnect a worthwhile element in the senator's current (as of 1.06.08) political successes?
Obama is a living example of the "bridge" between the racial issues of the past and the present cultural shift.
This cultural abridgement is very seldom discussed in specific terms. One wonders why.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Brachy Chronicles 3--La Ronde(s)
The ads on television ("Gotta go!" "Getting up in the night") have a lot more meaning when one knows, really knows, the subject matter intimately.
When the problem is "double voiding," one eventually learns the steps of the danse pissoir. It's rather exclusive, so you might not, Dear Gentle Reader(s), know of its intricacies. Ergo, the lesson of the day:
What to do? What to do? The electric tingle has subsided, but it has not vanished. Should one stay? Should one leave? Should one hop on alternate feet? After a few years, one decides to acknowledge the lessening of the tingle to a vague, slightly, but only slightly, unpleasant reminder of pressing problems by taking a short walk then returning to give egress to the hydraulic pressure on the tingle's switch.
A close friend handles his dance step by waiting in place and humming a slow tune, which soothes the savage beast within, thereby allowing the hiatus to pass, which, in turn allows the tingle to pass.
Which, one might wonder, is the most efficient? One argument is that staying in place and marking time is an efficient use of body energy. Another argument is that the walk away allows another to step in and dance for a moment, with the proverbial wide stance, thereby making more efficient use of the context, or the ballroom, if one will.
Ah, la danse!
Il est heureusement; il est malheureusement. Mais, il est necessaire! Tant pis.