So, what now? My surgery is done. I’m on the road to recovery. Now what do I do? Physically I still need to recover. This coming Thursday will be my two-week mark from surgery. I’m still sore where they cut out my prostate. I try to stay active and walk my neighborhood loop 2.7 miles daily. When I’m done walking, my bottom feels sore. My incisions around my torso are healing nicely and there doesn’t seem to be any pain in that area, but I am leery of lifting anything too heavy. Other than that, all is well.
I have a script for getting my blood test for PSA at 6 weeks. That would put the test around November 17th. My next hurdle (hurdle#3). My surgeon said to setup a meeting for January to go over the results. I’m not waiting until January. I’ll be setting up a follow-up with my Urologist prior to then to review my blood results.
So, in a month’s time what am I focused on? My physical health. I want to run again. I’m hoping by the 6 weeks mark I’ll be able to do that. I usually run the neighborhood loop or even a 5k route I have. I also want to figure out my diet. I started intermittent fasting when I found out about my cancer in August. I’m following the 6/18 method. It’s hard to believe the number of benefits there are from doing this. Along with fasting, I’m wanting to change my diet. I initially cut out milk and sweets to start. That helped me lose 12 pounds by the time I was to go to surgery. I was never overly overweight, but I wasn’t as fit as I could be. My metabolism isn’t what it used to be and even though I exercise regularly my regular diet wasn’t winning and I was staying around 185 to 190 pounds. Now I’m sitting at 173 to 174 pounds.
I’ve received a lot of advice on what to eat and drink. Someone sent me a video that said to focus on green peppers and green tea for the antioxidants. So, I started eating and drinking that. Someone mentioned to stay away from the “Dirty Dozen.” I’m starting to get apprehensive on what I should do and what is right and wrong for me. I’m hoping in the next few weeks I can sort that out and figure out a go to diet. I know this is never easy but one thing I think everyone I’ve talked to has said, stay away from sweets! That’s a hard one but putting it in perspective, I do cheat here and there, but prior to my cancer I was bad. I had 3 to 4 Oreos per night with a tall glass of milk and chocolates daily. I also drank coffee with cream and sugar. No doubt skipping these rituals helped me lose the weight prior to my surgery.
Of course, the other item to get back to is work. Honestly, I miss working. I enjoy the people and the work I do. So, I’m very excited to get back into the daily grind. My surgeon said I should take 3 weeks off but for me 2 weeks is enough. I am only required to go in 1 day a week and it’s always a change of pace to go into the office.
A couple of other things I want to do. First, open this site for others to tell their experiences. Right now, I’m providing my perspective and experiences, but I want others to do so too. So, I’m going to explore that in the next few weeks and see if I can open this platform up to others. Secondly, I still want to find a local support group for men dealing with Prostate Cancer. I think that will help me share my experience and help me figure out how I should set my diet. I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve created from Gilda’s Place, but I think it will be good to get perspectives from other men dealing with Prostate Cancer locally as well.
