Pork sausage for the win, glad the surgery went well. Hope the recovery is total and speedy. 

freitasm:

 

The surgery went well. Staying in the hospital a couple of nights. Had dinner, so it must be ok.

 

That is further great news.  :)

All going well.

Remember folks, have it checked. Just a sinple blood test to see if you need to progress to a MRI or biopsy.

Listening to a podcast. British guy, 60 years old, his last GP visit was eight years ago, and he was surprised the infection he had to treat in the emergency dept was caused by prostate cancer that had already spread to his bones.

Back home after a successful surgery and two nights at Wakefield Hospital.

When I thanked the surgeon on his first visit, the day after the surgery, he replied "No, thank you for letting me treat you."

The three nurses that took care of me during the stay were amazing,the anesthetist and admission nurse were great as well. The people serving meals, everyone had a smile and time to say hello.

Now for a week of distress with this pee bag, and followup blood tests and scans in a few months.

freitasm:

 

Back home after a successful surgery and two nights at Wakefield Hospital.

 

When I thanked the surgeon on his first visit, the day after the surgery, he replied "No, thank you for letting me treat you."

 

The three nurses that took care of me during the stay were amazing,the anesthetist and admission nurse were great as well. The people serving meals, everyone had a smile and time to say hello.

 

Now for a week of distress with this pee bag, and followup blood tests and scans in a few months.

 

Doesn't matter where you pee, just that you do. Welcome home!

Get. It. Checked.

Whatever and wherever it is, if somethings changed, get the docs to check it out.

You really don't want to get cancer - it's quite the bastard.

all the best to everyone who has, or is, going through it.

Small update.

Had the catheter removed yesterday. No leaks.

Surgeon notes say nerve spared, so it seems it was a good result too.

Men's health physio seems to be booked around around Wellington, with most only having slots from 20 December. Lucky I just got a call about a cancellation, so I will see someone this Monday. Great result.

No complications (so far), I feel tired after a couple of hours sitting down or in front of my work laptop (WFH anyway) so I always step away and lie down in the lounge or have a nap, depending on how tired.

Work's been great and had no problem with sick leave and time off. The team is amazing.

I have an ultrasound scan next week for something small under the skin, noticed during the PET scan. Not necessarily related as it was not highlighted by the radioactive element.

Have a consult with surgeon in a couple of months, with a round of scans and blood tests. Only then I will know for sure if it all worked out.

So, more updates in a few months.

freitasm:

 

Small update.

 

Had the catheter removed yesterday. No leaks.

 

Just be careful around water features. Some times in the early days the sound of trickling water can be the last straw 🤭

freitasm:

 

Small update.

 

I imagine you have plenty of support in all areas but if there is any boring Geekzone admin stuff I can help out with that can be handled remotely, feel free to ask.

Good that all seems to be progressing well.

Daughter is a physiotherapist and says that I shouldn't sit for any more than 20 minutes at a time. 

Glad things have worked out as well as they have so far Mauricio - Mens health isn't talked about enough...

Super brief story about my health in the last few years.

Since about 2021, my dad has been bugging me to get prostate checked and get a general health check since I hadn't (at that stage) had a need to see my doctor for about 17 years - even Covid was managed by me at home.

He finally talked me into it and my GP remembered me when I presented ("Haven't seen you for AGES Neil, I'm going to give you every possible test imaginable") and after finding out I had great health insurance (Thanks Spark! - and thanks me for topping it up to the highest possible level when I had the chance in about 2020!)  he sent me off for blood tests and a CT Coronary Angiogram. (Big loud machine and a contrast injection that makes it feel like you peed your pants)

The bloods were fine, but the CT Angiogram showed an issue... The specialists were surprised as the pictures showed a major calcified plaque and they couldn't understand why I was asymptomatic. Anyway, they sent me for a stress ECG to get some videos of the heart in motion.

The result from that showed quite a serious historical issue, but little to no current wall mobility restriction, so it looked like the blood was pumping ok.

It was enough to get me some daily drugs though.

A year later I got called back to repeat the tests, again - the specialist said that many people wouldn't do this if they were paying out of pocket, but he recommended it so I did it (Thanks Southern Cross!) This time it showed a quite serious issue and long story short, I was booked in for an angioplasty just a couple of weeks after the test.

The 'surgery' (surgical procedure) took under an hour, and I was held overnight only because they needed to observe the arterial puncture  where the tubes went in (wrist, not groin).

Full day to day recovery in a couple of days, back throwing golf discs in about a week.

The debrief from the specialist was the scary thing, and the point of the post here....

Although I was asymptomatic, in generally good health and had never had anything I associated with heart pain, a major artery was around 90% occluded and I was very lucky to be walking around. The stent was a huge success, taking the artery from 1.1mm diameter to just over 4mm diameter and restoring factory operation.

I had no symptoms... My dad made me see a doctor just out of paranoia. My Dr sent me for tests that he normally wouldn't because I had great health insurance. The followup tests were only conducted because of the health insurance.

I was an idiot. Thanks Dad for hassling me so much I went just to shut you up. Thanks Spark for bundling health insurance and making it easy for us to upgrade to the gold plated stuff, and thanks to the coronary care experts I saw who made everything surprisingly unscary.

Lessons?

• Get regular healthchecks
• Health insurance is awesome
• Your parents are almost always wiser than you - they've been around longer.

The ultimate cost of everything for me so far has been a $45 prescription fee and a $55 uber to the surgery.

Cheers - N

My brother-in-law went to Wellington Public with his prostate and was operated on at Wakefield by the same surgeon I paid to see privately. Cost doesn't always factor into it.

@Talkiet:

 

Glad things have worked out as well as they have so far Mauricio - Mens health isn't talked about enough...

 

Super brief story about my health in the last few years.

 

...

 

Lessons?

 

• Get regular healthchecks
• Health insurance is awesome
• Your parents are almost always wiser than you - they've been around longer.

The ultimate cost of everything for me so far has been a $45 prescription fee and a $55 uber to the surgery.

 

Good lessons. And just because you don't feel something it doesn't mean you don't have something.

Somehow missed this thread.  Back in October a good friend of mine was pushing the Mens Health thing and persuaded me to go get a PSA test done since I'm 51 and had not previously had one done and nor had the Dr bothered to chase me up for it.  Too easy to fall through the cracks in our health system these days.

Self funded the test through Awanui Labs and it came back well within the normal range at 0.71 whatevers.  Cool.

Fast forward to last weekend and after feeling rubbish all weekend (aside from the 30km MTB Taupo Cycle Challenge event - 3rd in age group, 25th overall) I found some blood in my pee on Sunday evening.  Quick chat with my bestie who is a paramedic and agreed to call the Dr first thing in the morning.  Another round of blood in the pee in the morning.  Got to see the Dr mid morning.  Does a heap of checks and questions and comes up with "I don't know".  Sent off to go get blood tests.

Blood and urine test results back within 24 hours and my PSA result is now 23 whatevers.  Along with some signs of infection in the urine.

Dr calls with those results and says that if I hadn't had the previous recent PSA test with low numbers he'd have been very concerned.  So, only mildly concerned, prescribed some fun AB's to combat what looked most likely to be Prostatitis rather than cancer and sent me for a CT scan to confirm.

CT Scan seems to have confirmed that.  Phew.  And yep, the "warm" feeling when they run the contrast dye through is "fun".  ;-)

Incidentally, Garmin health tracking was showing that I was fighting something.  Also, amusingly, the stress score was the lowest in a week during the CT scan, so apparently I'm not in the slightest bit freaked out by that process.  :-)  Probably just the body enjoying the chance to just chill out for 20 mins.

Will be interesting to see what the retest scores on the bloods will be in a few weeks.  Hopefully back in my normal range again.  Apparently I'll have a consult with the urology dept to make sure the Dr was on track etc.  Good that he's happy to get a second opinion from a specialist rather than assuming he's picked up everything.  I like a Dr who is aware of their own knowledge limits.

geoffwnz:

 

Blood and urine test results back within 24 hours and my PSA result is now 23 whatevers.  Along with some signs of infection in the urine.

 

Dr calls with those results and says that if I hadn't had the previous recent PSA test with low numbers he'd have been very concerned.  So, only mildly concerned, prescribed some fun AB's to combat what looked most likely to be Prostatitis rather than cancer and sent me for a CT scan to confirm.

 

This is a good result. And it shows not all high PSA will automaticall be an indication of cancer. See my next update below.