Thursday, May 27, 2021

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4am (heard the rooster, still drizzling), couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up at 4:30, did some work on the computer, went back to bed at 5am, catnapped until getting up at 6am.

[Ed. It’s now Friday and I’m going to try to catch up with my blog.]

We left the apt at 7:30 for my 8:20 appointment with my urologist. Our taxi driver didn’t seem to know one of the direct routes to El Tesoro. Still we only arrived 3 minutes late and neither the doctor nor receptionist were there. Another older couple were there with an 8am appointment. About 5 minutes later the receptionist wheeled in Dr. Castano. (Had I mentioned he was in a wheelchair?) We went in about 20 minutes later after the other couple left.

The urologist confirmed that my bone scan was clean so my cancer was localized to my prostate. He confirmed I would be having laparoscopic prostatectomy surgery but it would not be robot-assisted. After the surgery I would still have to have PSA tests but I would no longer need to take my prostate meds and I should sleep better at night without an enlarged prostate squeezing my urethra.

He said recuperation would entail 1-2 nights stay in the hospital followed by 7-10 days convalescing at home. In 3-4 weeks I should be well enough to return to strenuous exercise including working out at the gym.

There is a 6-8% chance of urinary incontinence but most likely it would be a temporary condition and there is physical therapy that can lessen the condition.

I asked what hospital he is associated with and he said CES (Calle 58 & Carrera 50C) in the Prado sector of Medellin.

The receptionist wanted to schedule me for surgery this Monday, May 31^st. I declined because I need to pay for the apt, etc. on Monday or Tuesday. She tentatively scheduled me for Thursday, June 10^th. I understand it depends on the availability of the other doctors in the team. She gave Teresa a piece of paper with a list of things.

Google translated it to:

Urinalysis with sediment and urinary density.

Urine culture [disc antibiogram].

Prothrombin time [PT].

Partial thromboplastin time [PTT].

Hemogram [Hemoglobin, hematocrit and leukogram] manual method.

Creatinine in serum or other fluids.

Glucose in serum, CSF or other fluid other than urine.

It sounds like it’s just a blood and/or urine test. Teresa told me I need to have this done 5 days before my surgery. Not sure how that would be possible since the receptionist originally wanted me to have my surgery on Monday.

To be continued…

 

We went to Santa Lena where Teresa had eggs and a Milo and I had a café con leche and an almond croissant.

Teresa did some shopping at stores like Adidas, Puma, and Zara. She exchanged leggings in Puma. We were in no hurry because if we were in the apt we would probably be napping. We had lunch in J&C Delicias. After, while she went to Zara I went down to Carulla to have some notes printed. They no longer have a copy center but I was told I should go to Amilando on the 2^nd floor. Walking to the back of the 2^nd floor I asked a security guard where I could print some copies from my memory drive. He led me back the way I came and pointed to a store. I went inside and it looked like they had a color printer for some type of large pages. I asked and was told to go to Anillando deep on the 2^nd floor. I passed the same security guard and asked him about Anillando and he took me to the kiosk. I printed the copies and returned to find Teresa outside Zara. We returned to Puma where she exchanged a top, plus 100,100 pesos for a pair of gym shoes. She wanted coffee so we went around the corner to Todo Fresa for coffee.

We left at 4:30 and we took a taxi back to the apt in a few raindrops.

At 6:45 Teresa asked me if I wanted to go for pizza. I asked her if she’s sure we will be back in time for her to see her favorite program Desafio which starts at 8pm. She said Gloria will put it on her TV if we are still there. I had her agree that we wouldn’t have to stay until the program was over. We picked up MT, first time I’ve seen her in glasses, and we went to Antica Pizza. I usually have vegetarian pizza but Teresa encouraged me to try something new so I had bacon with vegetables. There were a few raindrops as we left.

 

Johns Hopkins’ 7-day average of new infections and deaths has the US with 24,034 ð 23,162 ð 22,999 new cases and 534 ð 521 ð 596 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 3,270,614 ð 3,294,101 ð 3,319,913 cases with 85,666 ð 86,180 ð 86,693 deaths. Medellin has 295,222 ð 296,683 ð 298,526 cases, an increase of 1,843 from May 26^th to 27^th. Envigado has a total of 24,304 cases, an increase of 98 from May 26^th to 27^th.

 

Joke of the day

On our commute to work, my husband stopped at a convenience store for coffee.  As he got back into the car, I noticed something odd.  “Turn your head and look at me,” I said.  “You have a Q-tip sticking out of your ear.”

As he pulled it out, he replied, “No wonder the guy in there asked me if I was getting good reception.”