…you can thank PSA 18, Gleason 8, RALP 1. For a few of you, that may be all you need to know.
Oh, and for the RALP: I can reasonably claim to be a 60-year-old in terms of probable life expectancy. That’s important.
The longer story:
I have prostate cancer, as confirmed through an MRI and an MRI-guided ultrasound-based biopsy (an interesting procedure involving overlays for precision targeting, which I was watching as it took place), and with no apparent metastasis or leakage (as confirmed through a full-body bone scan).
The 60-year-old part involves the discussion leading up to final choice of action (which was not the original recommendation, based on my chronological age). After that discussion, involving some reading, my family’s record, and my own health record, we’ve decided on a RALP–Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Prostastectomy. I say “we” advisedly: my wife, the smart one in the household (and a retired librarian/library director as well as top-notch systems analyst), was definitely involved, and the urologist/oncologist was definitely listening carefully as we discussed things.
[The cancer is at a level with a substantial risk of recurrence some years down the road; this option means Plan B–radiation and hormone deprivation–is a followup if needed, while the reverse is not true.]
That will take place in late June, with one more day of pre-surgery stuff earlier in June.
Also between now and then, I expect to be helping with landscaping what was our back lawn (with some pleasure, I freecycled our electric mower and trimmer this week, as neither will be needed in the future), doing heavy lifting and moving stuff around and helping to select river rocks, given that I may not be in a position to do much lifting for a few weeks afterwards…
What this may mean for things anyone else would care about:
- GOAJ3: Gold Open Access Journals 2012-2017 will not be delayed. It should be out in the first half of June. (Basically, it’s done, and set aside for a week before doing final proofreading and prepping for publication.)
- Gold Open Access by Country 2012-2017–which is not a direct new edition of The Countries of OAWorld 2011-2016–could possibly be delayed until July, but probably not: I’d expect it to be out some time in June.
- The subject supplement issue of C&I probably
will be delayed until July or even August. OK, things went well–and thanks to lower back pain, I couldn’t help my wife as much as I’d hoped. It’s out now,
- I will be even less good about catching up on social networks, quite probably completely losing 2-4 days in late June and possibly more. I’m already giving up on tweets or timeline items more than 2-4 hours old so I can spend more time on the project and on health/household matters.
Otherwise? We shall see how it goes. I’m generally very healthy (I’m still not on any prescription medicines, which I suspect is rare for my age), and see no reason this will make me less so after a recovery period. Unless I decide to just sit around watching old movies and daytime TV, which may be just right for 2-3 days but seems implausible longer-term.
