Great News – its past 2300, I am awake, drinking sparkling water and eating well. 
Sounds great right, it is all true. Thought I should put out a quick update as people have started to ask how am I going and realise have not updated my progress!! Oops. 

The Update on Radiation Pneumonitis

The good news, I did not have to see the “Count” on Thursday as my Radiation Pneumonitis had got better, not fixed, but better. I will still see the “Count” this week for my follow up and find out what’s next. 

I managed to walk at a pace of an ordinary person, not a Graham pace, but still, not a snail/slug pace and I can make it to the front door and not be breathing like I was caught doing indecent things before you knocked on my door. “Slugman” can move faster, so perhaps I am more “Beetleman”, not super fast, but hey not as obviously slow. 

Cool update Graham – short sweet and to the point, not a ramble at all, I hear you say,  but that maybe not the whole update!

It’s Time to Raaammmmblllleee (said in boxing stadium announcement voice before the major fight).

Ohh In addition to the above truth, I am also wired, still on high daily dose of Dexamethasone, had a couple of wines earlier and now sipping a nice night cap of port to calm that racing mind, eating chocolate, figs, cheese, cold meats, prunes, more dried fruit (yeah there is a reason – not just that is what was left over from lunch).

So the “Dex”, yeah I am shortening the name like a true druggie. I have too many other words to get out and Dexmethson is a really long word, which is already shortened from its actual proper ingredient name of Dexamethasone. Anyway the Dex has more side effects that I first let up. 

I used to take Dex (same dose I am on now) for the first couple of days post Chemo and never really worked out which side effects were from the Dex and which ones from the dual toxic (literally)  chemo combo or the other anti-nausea drugs I was on. I knew it was meant to help me get out of bed and help me not feel so crap – so I popped those pills with hope and didn’t give it much thought.

So the ole Dex has eighteen common side effects, that’s cool as really, how unlucky to get all of them, not likely to happen. So I am thinking I have one of them – insomnia (yep that fits). Cool, have a side effect, should have no others let us move on.

Ohh no, the Mad Scientist believes I “supposedly” have some more (think of someone clicking their fingers in your face saying “uhh uhh uhh girlfriend, you have more”).  I am not so sure. 

Why not come on a fabulous journey of discovery with me.

We can go down the yellow brick road and meet the new characters/side effects and see if this is just a dream or if it is some sort of altered reality.

Why break it down – hmmm what else am I going to do, keep watching the movie “Sucker Punch” that is on TV currently – OMG this has a 22% Rotten Tomatoes review – I understand why I know I have seen it before, but can’t remember it – coz it was crap – channel flick back to MTV and make me think about going out to a club – if only my lungs would let me!!.

Ohh back to the fact finding mission to prove the sleeping Mad Scientist wrong (ohh yeah she is sleeping, along with the rest of the house, supposedly sleep is important and resting is good – yada yada yada). 

“Mood Changes”

Supposedly I have been emotional lately. Come on, not true at all. I was sitting chatting to the Mad Scientist the other day and was chatting away about mortality, nothing too deep, just that we are all mortal – supposedly – I should note that no one has proven that I am mortal yet – so scientifically speaking, I might still be immortal. I will only know when someone proves it to me. Ohh wait it will be too late then for me to know – good hey – I will always win that argument – or won’t know I lost the argument – another win/win solution bought to you by Grahams weird thought process. 

Anyway I got teary and could not say what I wanted to say – I did the manly cough, we laughed, I tried again, coughed again and laughed again. Nothing there so far, proves nothing I tell you. Then maybe later watching TV (it was deep ok – just back off – I hear your judgement – ok I don’t hear your judgement as that would make going a bit crazy). If I was a bit crazy and did hear your judgment, I wouldn’t care, wait I do care, wait I don’t. Ahh shit – I am moody. Crap, crap, crap the Mad Scientist maybe on to something. Doh…

“Rapid Weight Gain” – ohh how about renaming this to be hungry all the time.

I was thinking, ahh not true, but as you see above I am pigging out on food, and this is after a nice family dinner with a couple of red wines, apple pie for dessert, piece of cake after that, then some chocolate. Then I came home and I ate the left overs from lunch. I am soo into food currently, to the point I made a loaf of fruit bread yesterday morning (was ready at 1145)  and the boys got maybe two slices each and in under 24 hours, I had finished that sucker off.

I should note, that those who may have not seen me for a while (or years etc) and thinking this could be normal, nope, normally I could not eat a standard serving of a good wholesome “truckies dinner” from an outback roadhouse; not a chance in hell; proven this a few times; I am more of the quality over quantity guy.

Yep, ok , I will have to admit to the increase in eating, but as I have not weighed myself there is no proof of rapid weight gain. However for the amount I am eating and not able to exercise – thinking the scales are going to say “getting to fat bastard mode”. Shit, the Mad Scientist is right again. 

Any others?

Ohh now for the final one, which is probably the one that has been worse than any of the others but not for the reason many of you will think. 

A quick history on a surgery

We need to cover a bit of history, that I have not written about before, so we have to take a quick diversion in the ramble for this to have context, it will be ok, the ramble will continue, I promise, I have nothing else on currently so will get back to the story.

Prostate Cancer, that other cancer I have/had- the one I am pretty sure has left my body forever, thanks to the great Robotic Radical Prostatectomy and getting it out before it has spread outside the prostate.

Side note – they need to call the procedure an “un-prostate” or “prostate removal” or something  – again too many words Doctors, maybe shorten your terms.

Ok so here comes the education for the night for some (I am thinking unless you have someone really close that has gone through an “un-prostate” or you are a doctor, it is going to be an education).  It even took me a while to find out some of this stuff and I was looking.

When you have a “un-prostate” (I do like that one) ; they remove lots of stuff including the sphincter (a valve) that stops you peeing yourself. Us blokes then have to learn to use our Pelvic Floor muscles. Who knew us blokes had pelvic floor muscles – I bet most of us prior to either having prostate cancer or reading something like this wouldn’t have known – I sure as hell did not know. (Links here to good resources)

So hopefully prior, if not post, to your “un-prostate” you get to learn an exercise to tighten that muscle group. We then do a set of exercises to strengthen it. I was being a good gym junkie and doing 4 sets of 10 reps per day. I had an awesome routine. First when I woke up and lay in bed I would start, then when in the shower, then when making the first coffee, making the second coffee and if I missed a set, I would do a final set when I went to bed, sometimes it was an extra set for the day. Before you all freak out, you can’t tell I am doing them other than I breath out with my stomach to reset the muscle group and to tighten the group and hold, I think of muscle group between my butt and umm well balls – strange but true – suck up those muscles – I know even for me, that is almost over sharing, but it is what it is.

My pelvic floor was rock solid. I know, probably not a muscle group you can really look for the six pack when I take my shirt off. As I was not peeing myself and could hold my bladder for ages and I have had my bladder medically measured and its on the plus side – I am thinking it was evident I was buff in that muscle group.

Well, when you get “wired” you get out of rhythm and forget some sets (or most of them for a few days as I seem to sleeping with a deep sleep about every three days).  Then I started to feel that feeling I was going to pee myself (it was close people and numerous times in a day, which messes with your mind) . I started to panic, ohh no, my hard work can be reversed, I don’t want to go back to post catheter and be incontinent again – that just sucked and screwed with my head/emotions etc. A chat about that another day should be written me thinks. If I stay on the “Dex”, it could be in the next few days!!!

Stomach issues (lets just say firmness, requiring more fibre, water etc)

Umm awkward Graham – ohh we are back to the ramble. (ohh I hear it, the cringe, the urr really, eat some fibre dude, eat some dried fruit – ohh wait you gave us a hint earlier – nice subtle hint – you planned that didn’t you – yes I did – ohh yeah, I still have multiple voices tweaking away in my head thanks to “wired” part of Dex). 

So a googling down the yellow brick road we go; how long it can take to reverse the good work I had been doing with pelvic floor exercises? Can they stop working? Can you damage them? What is going to make this happen?

What did I find – ohhh  if you get “a bit too firm” it pushes on your pelvic floor muscles and as that is the only thing I have left now to stop me peeing myself, I will start to feel like or even worse actually have, incontinence reoccur. Right, but wait, I also found out that if I do not do the exercises for the rest of my life, then I could relapse into being incontinent (ohh thanks for that tidbit – suppose better to find out now and not stop). Lucky it also says you should be able to lessen the amount of sets when you become accomplished (which thanks to my buff set of pelvic floor muscles I reckon I am?). 

So the outcome – the sleeping mad scientist was right again, I have a bit of insomnia, mood swings, increased appetite (still not been on the scales), and stomach issues – but not a relapse into incontinence (phew on that last one).

So there you have it, another ramble; another nice port; another past midnight post; another round of MTV videos that make me smile and think I should be out night clubbing as I am  soo awake (if only the lungs would say yes).  On the plus side, the fold ups done, the ironing is done, the lunchboxes packed for everyone tomorrow, house tidied ready for the cleaner (ohh I had to take breaks during and between each of those tasks, as I was out of breath ).

Funny thing as I was  standing doing the fold ups my fitbit told me I was active for 30 minutes – ohh I am sooo fit right now – working that cardio – not!!!

Anyway will post this up on the blog, then head to bed – might try a sleep in the guest room tonight as last night was my good sleep, and I snore a bit when I get my good sleep night. Not sure its great for the one I sleep with at times and having a smart thinking Mad Scientist in my team thinking clearly for me, is probably a very smart thing for me. I think she deserves a good night sleep tonight 😉. 

Footnote – I managed to rock out just over two hours sleep with a nice 20 minute deep sleep, time for more Fibre, coffee and Dex.