Today, after nearly ten days, my catheter was removed!
The nurse took it out at 9 and I went back at 2:45 for a scan that showed by bladder was almost empty.
I've been drinking a bottle of water an hour and peeing each hour.
Free!
It's humbling to know your body owns the you you are.
No matter what you think in your brain, your body is in charge.
Just remember, whatever you think in your mind--your body is what owns the you you are.
Humbling, surely.
But good to remember.
Every time I think I've seen all the crazy in the world, something crazier shows up.
Take this: hundreds of Q-Anon followers showed up in Dallas this week, sure that John F. Kennedy Jr. was going to come and reinstate President Who's Name I Will Not Write to office.
J.F.K. Jr. died 20 years ago in a plane crash.
But Q-Anon said he hadn't died, had been in hiding and working for the former president behind the scene.
(Way 'behind', I'd say!)
Then the rumor said JFK himself would show up--not having been killed in Dallas after all. And he would proclaim the former president as president again.
(He'd be 104, but what is that to 'true believers' in MAGA?)
They lined up on the street where JFK was shot--very familiar looking--waiting for the arrival at 12:30 p.m.
It did not happen.
Surprise!!! Surprise!!!
So then they said JFK Jr. would come at half-time at the football game that night.
Can you even take that in?
Crazy is all around us.
Don't ignore it, make fun of it....
A couple of weeks ago, Bern said to me, "you have all these specialists and I have none."
This week when I told her I had four doctor appoints, all with specialists, in five days, I think she changed her tune.
Yesterday I saw my cancer doctor--I don't have cancer--because my PSA went up last year and it shouldn't because I have no prostrate gland. She's driven it down with shots but I've lost all the hair under my arms and some body hair.
I'm becoming gender neutral!
Today I saw my gout doctor who has rid me of that awful joint pain I suffered with for years--mostly in my ankles.
Tomorrow, NO DOCTOR!!!
Thursday I see the cardiologist for a scan. I have a leaky valve but he want's to make sure I don't need it replaced.
Friday, I see my urologist so she can take out my catheter and check my bladder.
I have to go at 9 a.m. for the first and 2:45 p.m. for the second.
I'll deduct all the miles on my tax return as a medical expense.
Lots of miles this week.
Stay well and stay away from specialists, no matter what Bern might think....
The first person I know personally to die from Covid is an old and dear friend named Marge.
She was vaccinated, I believe, but came down with pneumonia and then was exposed to Covid and got sicker and died.
She would not have died of the pneumonia.
She must have come in contact with a non-vaccinated person and caught the virus.
Most vaccinated people only have mild symptoms when they get Covid. But having pneumonia left her vulnerable to sickness beyond that.
Someone she was with had the virus and was probably not vaccinated.
They killed my friend.
Why can't people realize this is not a 'political' issue.
It is a public health emergency!
I used to pity anti-vaccers.
Now I hate them.
RIP, Marge.
I was about to set off to pick up the pizza we ordered for dinner (Margarita with anchovies, if you're interested) when I discovered my keys and wallet weren't where I always put them.
I was stunned.
Bern and I searched high and low. Bern went to my car to see if I'd left them there.
"I had them yesterday," I said full of anquish.
"Did you go out yesterday?" she asked.
She said I didn't and I half believed her.
But luckily, I believed her enough to go check my laundry bag.
Sure enough, they were in the pants I wore 'day before yesterday'!
Finding them gave me such a rush of adrenaline that I went to pick up the pizza and some wine with the cane I always use outside.
Didn't realize I'd left it until I saw it when I brought the pizza into the kitchen.
Despair and exultation within a few minutes of each other....
In the best order too.
Yesterday was not so good.
But feeling pretty good today.
Seeing Joe Biden hanging out with the Pope was a treat.
I would have liked to have been a fly on that papal wall!
Can't you just imagine Joe cracking jokes to Francis?
And the Pope took a swipe at some U.S. bishops who want Biden's support of abortion to make him a non-believer. The Pope told him to keep receiving communion....
Gotta like those two guys.
I am a cancer survivor.
I had prostate cancer over 10 years ago and had it removed after talking to a female consultant in NYC. I asked her what she would tell me if I were her brother and she said, "yank it out!"
She also recommended a surgeon in Greenwich, so I had my surgery at Greenwich hospital--which is more like a luxury hotel than a hospital--meals from menus, not able to see the door of another room from the door of your room, a pianist playing for hours in the big room on the first floor that floated through the rooms above.
But my radiology after surgery, done in Waterbury every week day for a week, scared my bladder. So, every month I have two peas with a little blood and my urologist tells me that's perfectly normal.
However, yesterday (Tuesday) was different.
I did my zoom group and went to Waterbury Hospital to get my two Zolair shots I get every other week. (Zolair, by the way, is a wonder drug. It has ridden me of asthma attacks and most asthma symptoms!)
But when I got home, I had a pee that was mostly blood.
And then again.
And again.
Finally, it became a trickle of blood only and I had to go do it ever 15 minutes.
So, I went to the Emergency room. Bern took me though I planned to go by myself. Lucky that she did because I started having severe pains in my bladder half-the-way there.
We waited in a very busy waiting room for almost three hours before they called me.
They tried to insert two different catheters with no success and then called the urologist on call. It took him over an hour to come.
He put a camera up my penis and found a constriction of the urinary track.To open it, he started with a wire into my bladder and then a series of larger and larger tubes on the wire until he opened it up for the catheter.
Amazing amount of pair for almost an hour!!!
A wire up your penis...imagine....
But the catheter ended the pain.
Bern went home after 12:30 a.m.
He saw me twice this morning and after deciding I could go home with the catheter at 10:30, I called Bern to bring me jeans and underwear since the ones I had were soaked in blood.
It was another 5 1/2 hours before the order was finally accepted, my IV was removed and I came home with a leg bag and an overnight bag.
Almost 24 hours in pain and waiting.
The nurses were great though.
Meanwhile, Brigit, our dog had been in the Vet hospital having a growth removed and her teeth cleaned while she was asleep.
She is not happy. We picked her up at 5 p.m. and it's 9:30 now and she's restless and whiny and obviously in pain.
The two of us are a mess.
Maybe the worst 24 hours of my life....
