The guy at the corner grocery watched me walk across the parking lot in the rain.
“Where's your bike?”
“In the garage, where it's happy,” I told him.
Five days after my radical prostatectomy, I'm happy with the bike in the garage too. Considering my soreness and catheter, I can't imagine riding it anytime soon.
Surgery
I had my surgery on Thursday and spent two nights in the hospital, but I'm at home now feeling much better. I want to thank everyone who left a comment here or emailed me personally for their kind wishes.
My urologist said the prostate area looked clean, but hopefully he'd have a final report when I go in Thursday to get my catheter removed. A couple of doctors and anesthesiologists — including one who is a 8-time veteran of RAGBRAI — said I looked fit and should have a pretty quick recovery.
Still, I had no desire to try walking after the surgery on Thursday evening. In fact, I put off my first few steps until late Friday morning, when I gingerly got out of bed and shuffled halfway down the hall with the help of the nurse and a 6-foot-tall walker. I went a little farther after lunch, with just the IV tree, and by dinner my wife and I were doing laps around the nursing wing.
Loopy
Because I didn't seem to have my pain under control yet, they kept me Friday night. I resolved to increase the dosage on some medication. Although I felt loopier in the head, the pain virtually disappeared.
Saturday morning I was ready to get out of bed the minute the pressure socks came off, and I was pacing the floor when the attending physicians arrived to prepare my release.
Surprise visitor
One of the bright spots during my hospital stay was a visit by a member of a local Prostate Cancer Support Group. He had been in Italy for a few weeks leading up to my surgery, and never returned my emails. He apologized when he returned and invited me to the next meeting.
He surprised me with the visit after the surgery on Thursday, and it was great to talk with someone who was knowledgeable about the surgery, but was not a medical person.
Exercise
Light exercise is important to recovery. I took my first walk outside in the rain on Sunday morning. I didn't mind the weather, it just felt good to be outside under my own power for a change. Five days earlier I'd been speeding along on my bicycle, but this walk gave me just as much satisfaction. And even though I was out for only 20 minutes or so, I took a nice nap afterwards.
I've been repeating the short neighborhood walks two or three times a day ever since. I can't believe how much there is to see once you get off a speeding bicycle. (That's an ironic joke in my still slightly drug-addled state.)
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