Skip to main content

A lot going on

William Blake / Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils c.1826


A lot has been happening over the last week or so. I try to find something funny or positive to write about. But what's been going on both in the world and in my own life that has been difficult.

A little over a month ago I had a blood test that came back with an elevated PSA number. An indicator of prostate cancer. Seriously! It is said that God does not give you more than you can handle. I've read Job in the Bible and I really have no interest in discovering my limit.

At the beginning of the month I thought we would be visiting both my daughter and her family and Austin and Morgan in North Carolina. Then travailing on to Evansville In. to visit Jans Dad. With my diagnosis it was decided that they would visit us. Then we decided Austin should not come because of the increasing threat of the Coronavirus and flying was not a good idea. Then we decided that it may not be a good idea for Jessica and Noah to travel to us because Jan and I were going into self-quarantine.

I had a biopsy of my prostate done. Not necessarily the most invasive procedure that I have had done to my body but close. Of course the results came back positive for cancer. But according to the doctor it is treatable and currently slow growing. The treatment that we have decided follow it hormone therapy followed by radiation. I really did not want surgery because after my heart surgery I kinda had enough of that.

Now the hormone therapy is 6 months in duration and consists of one shot that lasts that long. I was told that the treatment drops my testosterone level which starves the cancer cells and should reduce my PSA level to near 0. That's a good thing. Side effects, similar to menopause in women. OK woah, hold on. Watching Hallmark Christmas movies and complaining that the children never call?  No the doctor said that there may be fatigue, loss of stamina, and hot flashes. I have been sleeping in but with this self-quarantine I really have no reason to get up early. I'm still riding my bike and maintaining the time and distance I was doing before the shot. As far as hot flashes as Jan will say I am usually cold and don't mind the heat so I'm good with that.

Public Service Announcement: Guys if you are 50 years old or so or if you know a guy that age GET YOUR PSA CHECKED. It is just a blood test and this can be treated the earlier the better.

Because of the coronavirus and self-quarantine Jan and I are watching a lot of TV. Jan found out about an add on to Amazon Broadway HD. So the the past few days we have been watching Broadway plays. Mostly musicals. I'm assuming its the hormones. Right now its Cats. Visually it is an interesting show but I'm totally missing the story line or why there is such a fuss about it. Lithe dancers in tight cat unitards can only carry a show so long.  But now I can check that show off my list as having had seen it. Next I'm thinking about watching King Lear.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Almost a Year into Retirement

January 6, 2020 was my last day of work. I remember that it was rather anticlimactic. It was the day after Winter Break and a teacher work day. Everyone at work had just come back and it was a non-student day. I was there because if you work one day in a month our health insurance covers you for that month, If you have ever priced insurance a month is worth working a day. So after a number of very nice parties celebrating my retirement. (I know that is a strange concept now, getting together in large groups for any reason. ) I had a few weeks to just relax, sit back and contemplate my future. Ummm what should I do? I thought it would be sleep late and watch late night TV. No! My body had other plans . Even without the need to get up and go to work I was still waking up early and getting sleepy around 10 pm. I guess my body was having a hard time adjusting to this new life style. The nearly 40 years of work had taken it's toll. I realized I would  never be able to go back to my 20...
3 comments
Read more

The Quest

Back at the end of December I wrote about a quest I was planning to go on after I retired. A food quest of various seafood restaurants I have heard about. I have these restaurants saved on my Yelp account Collections called " Seafood Restaurants I'm Gonna Eat At ." Some on the list I already eat at regularly. Others are new and I'm waiting to try them. Today I tried a new one. Happy's Bayou Bites located near downtown Dunedin. A small unassuming food truck converted into an outdoor restaurant. It is located just off of Skinner Boulevard at the corner of Howard Avenue. There are 4 picnic tables and just enough parking for that. Jan and I went there with her sisters and their husbands. Tom and Becky, Patty and Bill we were all celebrating Valentines day and this was a nice place to do that and have lunch. Jan had the fried catfish basket and I had the chicken and sausage gumbo. Jan said the fish was very good, light breading and flaky moist fish. She cleaned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trip to Evansville In.

  For the past week or so Jan and I have been visiting her dad and sister in Evansville In. Or as Art calls it Heavinsville. We came up originally to help Mary with her house. She is painting and carpeting several rooms. Because of Covid Jan's dad Art has moved from his apartment into Mary's house. We came down to help Art while he stayed with us at a hotel and the house got recarpeted.  Well that all went sideways first day at the hotel. Art who is 96 started feeling poorly and eventually it was decided to call an ambulance to transport him to the emergency room for, as my daughter calls it a little heart tune-up. It was quite an adventure having a firetruck and ambulance arrive at our hotel and all crowd into our room.  At the hospital because of Covid only one other person was allowed in and it was decided that Jan would stay and I would head back to Mary's house. Now a funny story of events before the ambulance arrived. I had gone to take a rest in our hotel room whil...
3 comments
Read more