April...the cruelest month

At least for me, it was.

On 4-16-2026, living with an enlarged prostate caught up with me. That morning, at 3:45 AM (Central time), for the first time in my life, I woke up unable to eliminate.

As a result, I was unable to help out at our church's all-congregation cleanup. Instead of helping to tidy up a church building, I ended up seeing UroHealth Partners (10707 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68114).

UroHealth's staff took care of the pain in my private parts, all right. By 11:55 AM, the staff put a catheter on me...and I was able to drain.

They had me come back for a pair of followup appointments...4-22-2026 (the day they took the catheter out) and 4-23-2026. I felt all right after the cath removal. Felt able to do my thing on my own. But on 4-25-2026, the pains came right back.

On a freakin' Saturday...and UroHealth isn't open on weekends.

This time, I ended up going to the emergency room at CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center- University Campus (2412 Cuming St., Omaha, NE 68131)...the closest hospital to where I live.

By around 1:30 PM, CHI's staff put a new catheter in me...and that's what I'm wearing at the present time.

Two days later, the UroHealth staff announced that I'll undergo prostate surgery at 6:00 AM on 5-26-2026 at Methodist Hospital (8303 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68114). The object: To reduce my prostate to a more manageable size.

I'll continue to wear a catheter until at least 6-2-2026. Until that date comes, I'm not about to have that cath removed.

Here's hoping for a successful prostate surgery.

Real Pain

These last sixteen days have basically been the pits for me.

I'm still in pain...even if it's not the physical kind.

First and foremost, I'm grieving the loss of a friend from my Adult Children of Alcoholics days, Rosemary "Billi" Whelton (12-24-1944/7-21-2016), who went on to become a Great Plains Ragtime Society member. 

Here's how she looked in 1963, the year she graduated from Omaha Cathedral High School.

 

I really loved Billi's sense of humor...and her generosity.

Next, I'm hurting inside over the consequences of a corporate, job-related decision. (I'll just leave it at that.)

And I'm still unhappy about how this year's Ragtime to Riches Festival went. Billi didn't get to attend it, because she spent the bulk of 2016 in hospice after being diagnosed with the cancer that ultimately cost the former smoker and recovering alcoholic her life. 

On the run-up to R to R 12.0 (in fact, an hour before the event's workshop got started), I took heat over missing this year's World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival...the first one ever held in Mississippi after the previous 41 took place in Illinois.

My absence from this year's Memorial Day weekend get-together was labeled a "disappointment."

IT DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE THAT, FOUR MONTHS AGO, I SENT AN EMAIL ANNOUNCING MY IMPENDING ABSENCE TO THE VERY PERSON WHO WENT ON TO CALL MY NO-SHOW A "DISAPPOINTMENT!"

I emailed several other OTPP wheelers-dealers to tell them I couldn't make the trip this year.

To repeat: I'm to undergo cataract surgery in my left eye later this year (or early in 2017).

Before the surgery can begin, I need to pay the $165 I owe for the work done on that same left eye (12-14-2015) to repair its retina...and cough up an additional $1,500 before the clinic that did the retina work can touch my left eyeball again.

Yes, I've got health insurance through the place where I work...but it's useless in a case such as this.

It takes at least two weeks for people to recover from cataract surgery. I've got two weeks- ten working days- left here in 2016 to use as paid vacation time.

Because of the impending surgery, this year's personal paid vacation time is spoken and accounted for.

All of this on top of the University of Mississippi charging more than the Old-Time Music Preservation Association (the previous OTPP steward group) did not only to attend the contest, but also to enter its events.

Here's my question for those who've criticized my decision not to try to come to Oxford, MS, for OTPP 42.0:

GIVEN WHAT'S CURRENTLY ON MY PLATE, WHAT THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO??!!#@*? 

You tell me.