It is now March 11, 2013, two months and one day since I had my prostate removed. I said in my last post that I probably would not report on my recovery, but all has been going very well so I can report that all is going very well. Control of urinary function [I'm sorry, but how else do I say it] has improved considerably and is almost back to normal. I have returned to the doctor's office twice for follow up visits since my stitches were removed and all is well. My PSA count is zero and I have no other issues with regard to the surgery. I have been working out regularly at the local Y and walking, now that the snow has mostly melted. Raquel, my coach at the Y has been very supportive and has shown me how to use a variety of machines. There is a series of twelve machines that exercise every part of your body and the results are captured automatically on a computer. I can also add any other activity that I do outside, or on other non-computerized machines at the Y, so the program keeps track of my physical progress.
After my surgery, I was trying to be very careful and not set the weight on the machines too high. I have now begun to increase the weights because I noticed that some little old ladies that were ahead of me were lifting more weights than I. Not a situation that could be allowed to continue. If they could lift that much than I could lift even more. Don't worry readers, I'm working my way up gradually. I really don't want to do anything foolish and get hollered at by Raquel. My Y membership costs $25.00 a year for full membership with my Medicare Advantage plan (for which I pay a zero dollar a month premium). I can't believe what a good deal this is. There is an exercise room with oodles of machines, free weights, several gyms, an indoor heated pool, two outdoor pools, a dry sauna, hot tub, all kinds of programs for health and fitness and I get four free hour lessons with my own personal coach (that would be Raquel). There are always staff members around to assist, give advice and help in any way that they can. It takes about fifteen minutes to get there from our house. There is also another Y about fifteen minutes in the other direction. We haven't been to that one yet. It is newer and I guess bigger, but there is no consensus as to which one is better. Some people like one better, some the other. Anyway, it's a nice perk from our medical insurance.
My Medicare Advantage HMO plan is proving to be very good. I was very concerned when we moved up here about changing from Original Medicare with a Supplement (Medigap) plan to an HMO or PPO. Original Medicare with the Supplement plus a drug plan would cost, this year, about $250.00 on top of the approximately $100.00 a month I have to pay for Medicare Part B. My old plan paid everything with no co-pays. The new HMO has co-pays, but they are minimal and the plan has been great. I could not be more pleased with it. All I pay now are the co-pays and the $100.00 for Medicare Part B. Even my prescriptions are far less expensive with this plan.
So, anyway, all of this isn't very funny and some people expect me to write rollicking hysterical material. Unfortunately prostates aren't very funny, especially when they are misbehaving or coming out of you. Now, however, all of the tests are behind me (unintended pun), I appear to be functioning pretty much at my level of normal and have probably exhausted most claims to sympathy. In other words, I ought to get on with my life. As I'm writing this I notice that Blogspot is giving me messages that this or that is going wrong and that I should try again later. I don't know what I should try later, but maybe I should stop while I'm ahead and go out and look for something humorous to memorialize. Whatever that turns out to be it most likely won't have anything to do with computers.
