About that prostate surgery...

It was a success.

The surgery actually took place at 7:30 AM on 5-26-2026 at Omaha's Methodist Hospital...and five hours later, after they reduced my prostate by 100 cm, I woke up in my own room there. I was discharged at 11:30 AM the next day.

Surgery was the easy part...the first robotic radical prostatectomy ever done here in Nebraska. Recovery was the hard part. Very difficult at first to let my body heal...circumstances didn't really permit it.

First order of business was to clean up my apartment...something wearing a catheter made harder (especially when you factor in the use of a vacuum cleaner). Good thing the staff at UROHealth Partners removed my catheter on 6-3-2026. Despite what Methodist's discharge instructions said, I ended up throwing out my bed in four pieces, running that vacuum cleaner, and climbing stairs. (Couldn't help climbing the stairs...I live on the third floor.) I'm trying to eat better than before, though: More fresh fruit, more soups, more salads. And I'm fighting to stay better hydrated than back in April. I'm drinking less pop, more water, and more Gatorade, too.

I actually feel better now than I did before the surgery; in fact, I'd call myself 99.999% recovered from what the robot (and the laser attached to it) put me through.

Now...to do something about those extra bathroom visits...

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.

It's been such a long, long time...

57.5 years, to be exact.

It's been that long since I began wearing glasses. (Back then, the fall of 1965, when my constant squinting led to the decision to get me into my first pair of glasses.)

Well...thanks to two cataract surgeries (3-6-2023 and 3-27-2023), subsequent followups, and two bottles of Pred-Brom, I now see 20/20 for distance. Don't need glasses for driving anymore.

Okay...I still need reading glasses when I'm looking at books, newspapers, magazines, and computer screens.

Still, that's good enough for me.

Brumm Eye Center and Miracle Hills Surgery Center, thank you so very much!

Tomorrow's the day!

This could've taken place in January 2017...except the need to replace the transmission on the car I had at the time (a 2006 Ford Taurus SEL that I bought in June 2007) came first.

Instead, it's going to happen tomorrow at 9:15 AM at the Miracle Hills Surgery Center (11819 Miracle Hills Dr., Suite 201, Omaha, NE 68154).

The mission: To remove the cataract from my left eye.

Quite a few things during the intervening six years and two months delayed the surgery...from the need to continue building a retirement fund to 2020's successful enrollment in Medicare to my having to buy a replacement car in April 2021 to retiring from my factory job in October 2022. But now, I'm ready for Dr. Matthew Brumm to come after that cataract.

A followup will ensue this coming Tuesday at 8:30 AM at Brumm Eye Center's north office (6751 N. 72nd St., Building 2, Suite 105, Omaha, NE 68122).

After all this...who knows? All I want is to see better...so that I can, among other things, drive at night again.

Now...it's your turn. Have you faced cataract surgery (or surgeries) in the past? What was it like? How'd you fare?

Thanks for reading "Boston's Blog!"

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. 

Well, It Happened

The eye operation I was scheduled to undergo, that is.

It wasn't the cataract surgery I'd written about earlier. (Last month, I was told by the ophthalmologist scheduled to do what turned out to be yesterday's surgery that putting me through cataract surgery at this present time might mean losing my eyesight.)

Yesterday's operation had to do with repairing the retina in my left eye.

A couple of months ago, when I made my first visit to Midwest Eye Care in eleven years, I was told that a retinal rip had been found in that left eye (as well as the cataract in said peeper).

So yesterday, at 9:30 AM (Central time), Dr. David Ingvoldstad (the O.D. I met last month) and one of the clinic's nurses, Sarah Plagman (Sarah, I hope I got your last name right!), went to work on that offending eyeball of mine.

First of all, I received six drops of dilating fluid (Sarah was hoping that just three would turn the trick); then, when the left eye proved it was lubricated enough, a numbing fluid was added.

Then David put a new lens into my left eye. And after that (with Sarah holding my head so that my chin would stay on the bar), he administered four laser blasts to that left eye.

The whole thing was completed by 10:00 AM.

And something I'd agonized about for almost two weeks turned out to be fine.  

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they didn't have to stick a patch over the affected eye once the operation ended. (The patch would've gone on if a local anesthetic had been applied around that left eye.) What's more, I was told that I could immediately go back to my pre-surgery activities...like reading, watching TV, computer work, etc., etc. 

After yesterday's argon retina laser operation, my left eye feels a bit better...for now.

The final verdict is yet to come, for it usually takes a month or so before argon patients can tell the difference in their eyesight. (I'm still worried about the halo effect in my left eye.)

Well, for me, the next test comes on 1-18-2016, when I come back to the Midwest Eye Care office at 4353 Dodge St. here in Omaha. 

Here's hoping yesterday's operation turns out to be a complete success.

I Don't Want to Wait Another Eleven Years

On 10-13-2015, I went to Midwest Eye Care at 4353 Dodge St. here in Omaha to do something I hadn't taken care of in eleven years: Undergo an eye exam.

I was hoping to replace the eyeglasses I bought there the last time I visited the facility- the first set of bifocals I've ever owned.

Instead, the staff told me it was time to get cataract surgery. (Dr. Scott Greder and his staff found a single cataract in my left eye...the only thing wrong with either of my peepers. Outside of my needing glasses to begin with, that is.)

Felt stunned to find this out.

Ever since then, I've experienced all kinds of emotions; almost everything from grief to anguish to relief. (After all, when you have to close your left eye to get clarity when you're driving at night, you've got to do something to correct the situation. And when you experience a halo effect when you're trying to see, you need to do something to fight the situation.)

After I got home from a trying shift of work, I got home and went to the very computer on which I'm typing this post. I started doing some research on cataract surgery...and when I reached www.mayoclinic.org and read up on what the Mayo staff had to say about the procedure, well...let's face it. 

Tears came to my eyes.

Okay, I've probably now lost the support of any rap music fans by admitting tears ever came to my eyes about anything. (You know what some rappers and some of their fans have to say about men who've shed tears. With that in mind, how would they feel about Jesus in John 11:35?)

The day after the Midwest Eye Care appointment, I started asking around about what it's like to go through cataract surgery. 

One of my coworkers at a local plastics factory went through this last year; after both his eyes got the treatment, he's seeing much better than before. 

My ten-going-on-eleven-year-old nephew has already undergone the surgery twice...when he was three, then again five years later.

Found out the procedure is commonplace, and it takes anywhere from five to twenty minutes (at the fewest) thanks to laser technology. And you get to come home the same day of the surgery.

In all, according to the Mayo Clinic Website, it takes eight weeks to fully recover from the operation. 

I was able to get the eye exam in the first place due to receiving a bonus from the company I work for. Even with health insurance through the company, I've still got to be ready to pay a deductible. Right now, I'm all set financially to fork over the deductible dough.

I'm scheduled to go on a consultation at MEC at 2:00 PM on 11-24-2015; afterwards, I'll be able to find out when my own operation will take place. (I'd rather get in on laser technology than the old procedure- the one with tiny knives. Laser surgery is more accurate than the old system.)

So in the meantime, I'm working to take comfort in the chance to see better than before (and get in on experiencing more vivid colors and sharper images).

Who knows? Maybe, fifty years after putting on my first pair of glasses, I might not need them anymore.

Here's what I do know:

I don't want to wait another eleven years to get these eyes checked out.