Monday, June 05, 2006
One day at a time
One of the things that I've learnt from my spell in hospital, is to take one day at a time.
I know that's a hackneyed phrase but it certainly is the truth when you're recovering from an operation, and it may well be something that I take into other aspects of my life from now on.
Now that I'm out of hospital following my radical prostatectomy operation, there are two key goals to focus on:
To get the results to see if they found any other cancerous nasties.
To have my catheter removed.
My specialist tells me that the catheter needs to stay in for a total of two weeks and four days from the time of the operation. That's 10 days time. He will be removing the catheter himself at his rooms, and that's also the time when he wants to discuss with me my full report following the operation.
Today is a public holiday here in Perth, Western Australia, so I know that the earliest he will have the results back from the lab is Tuesday, probably Wednesday. So, I said to him, "I'm quite anxious to hear the results. Can't you phone me when you get them, especially if it's good news?"He pointed out that while he could, it would be best to discuss the results face-to-face.
In his view the phone wasn't a good medium for this. He said, even in a worst-case scenario, no action could be taken prior to our appointment to remove the catheter. And even in a best-case scenario, we would need to discuss what this really meant. Either way, it was better to do it face-to-face.
Normally, that's the point at which I would have attempted to find out if my assertion skills had fully recovered from the anaesthetic. But what he said made sense, very convenient for him being a busy medical specialist, but it did make sense.
I explained this to my wife Gwen the following day. She like me was anxious to hear the results and patience is not Gwens greatest virtue. But I pointed out to her that I've already waited five weeks since the biopsy, and it was more important to concentrate on the healing process one day at a time than to get the results. However, I understand how tough it is for the partners in these situations so I said to Gwen, if she found this too difficult I was quite comfortable with her phoning up our specialist to discuss it.
Gwen said that was OK. She understood that the most important thing right now was the healing process and agreed that we could wait and deal with other things at the appropriate time.
I think weve both learnt something important about taking things one day at a time.
I know that's a hackneyed phrase but it certainly is the truth when you're recovering from an operation, and it may well be something that I take into other aspects of my life from now on.
Now that I'm out of hospital following my radical prostatectomy operation, there are two key goals to focus on:
To get the results to see if they found any other cancerous nasties.
To have my catheter removed.
My specialist tells me that the catheter needs to stay in for a total of two weeks and four days from the time of the operation. That's 10 days time. He will be removing the catheter himself at his rooms, and that's also the time when he wants to discuss with me my full report following the operation.
Today is a public holiday here in Perth, Western Australia, so I know that the earliest he will have the results back from the lab is Tuesday, probably Wednesday. So, I said to him, "I'm quite anxious to hear the results. Can't you phone me when you get them, especially if it's good news?"He pointed out that while he could, it would be best to discuss the results face-to-face.
In his view the phone wasn't a good medium for this. He said, even in a worst-case scenario, no action could be taken prior to our appointment to remove the catheter. And even in a best-case scenario, we would need to discuss what this really meant. Either way, it was better to do it face-to-face.
Normally, that's the point at which I would have attempted to find out if my assertion skills had fully recovered from the anaesthetic. But what he said made sense, very convenient for him being a busy medical specialist, but it did make sense.
I explained this to my wife Gwen the following day. She like me was anxious to hear the results and patience is not Gwens greatest virtue. But I pointed out to her that I've already waited five weeks since the biopsy, and it was more important to concentrate on the healing process one day at a time than to get the results. However, I understand how tough it is for the partners in these situations so I said to Gwen, if she found this too difficult I was quite comfortable with her phoning up our specialist to discuss it.
Gwen said that was OK. She understood that the most important thing right now was the healing process and agreed that we could wait and deal with other things at the appropriate time.
I think weve both learnt something important about taking things one day at a time.
# posted by Jurek Leon @ 5:17 pm 
