Home again

Hi, I am home... very sore and moving very slowly but home!

I see Mark my son, through Gary did a couple of updates while I was out of action but this is me again. I'll split this bulletin up into two parts the medical and the spiritual. So first the medical.

The Tuesday afternoon, night and Wednesday morning were a struggle. I had been having pain control through an epidural tube in my back. (I had tubes everywhere.. in places I didn't even know I had places! I must have looked like a Borg!) The pain control took away my control of my left leg and I had pins and needles in my left hand, so they stopped the epidural pain control and went on to oral pain control. There was an effective gap of a few hours between the two then my catheter clogged five times and that was painful, but now just a distant memory. I had a very disturbed Tuesday night and slowly, as the pain control kicked in, began to feel much better.

I was still feeling pretty washed out when the surgeon said he wanted me up and walking about! "You are over the operation. Now the biggest danger is Deep Vein Thrombosis". So on Wednesday I was inching my way up the corridors and then the surgeon said "You can go home tomorrow!".

Thursday morning I had to change from the hospital catheter to one strapped to the leg and then get dressed. I felt as though I had done day's manual labouring! I arrived home at about midday and plodded about for much of the day. There are all sorts of bodily functions than need to be reactivated so it is slow progress. Later this morning I am going to the Local Surgery to see their Practice Nurse about control of the catheter and other issues.

10 days from the surgery I return for the removal of the catheter and may need to stay overnight.

As regards long term implications... the surgeon found nothing to prevent him going ahead with the radical prostatectomy and stripping of the lymph nodes. They will need to examine these and following a thing called a 'super sensitive PSA' test will be in a position to decide whether to begin radio and/or hormone therapy.

BUT.... so far, everything has gone very well. Thank you all so much for your prayer and cards and emails. I am a blessed man! Please excuse me if I don't answer personal emails for a little while. My energy levels have plummeted and the surgeon says I must expect this for some time. I will comment as I feel able and perhaps later today say something about 'salvation by grace through faith' in everyday trials. Love you all!