Sunday I was still at Miranda's house; since her family had departed on an Alaskan Adventure, Sarah came to stay with me. I was still enduring some pain and discomfort due to the catheter and was in no condition to attend church. So we YouTubed the Mountain Home Ward meeting. The rest of the day I did as little as possible.
Monday was not much different. Stay put and try not to move too much. Deborah's family did drive up in the late afternoon and cooked hamburgers for dinner. It was Memorial Day and that is a traditional meal.
Tuesday came at last; the day I had been anticipating for 11 days. Rebecca pronounced June 1st as Tom Fox Penal Emancipation Day! And that it was!! Deborah drove up to take me to my afternoon appointment to have the catheter removed. And what a difference that made! I felt like a new man. The attending PA also assisted in my surgery and was able to share that my prostate was smaller than normal and that the surgery went smoothly. The lab report shows that all the adjoining lymph nodes that were removed were cancer free, so one could conclude that I am cancer free. But one thing I learned from Sandy's experience is that one is never cancer free, it is just hiding someplace to make a later surprise appearance. They recommend regular testing to monitor increased risk, but I am comfortable that there are still a lot of miles in this body of mine. For now, I am just happy not to be attached to 'Fill-up', my urine collection bag, and am able to do stuff. To celebrate, Deborah took us to Andy's Froze Custard; after all, it is tradition.
Now I need to retrain my bladder to take control of urinating instead of leaking whenever it wants. I am now dependent on my new friend Depends; not too awkward, but at least I don't go around with wet pants. I am learning how best to navigate this new situation to minimize leakage; I can almost tell when that will happen and am working on training my body.
I drove myself home on Wednesday without incident. Good to be home. When I first drove to NWA on 20 May, I had hopes of coming home after a few days. But that obviously did not happen. I was gone for 13 days. And I got to sleep in my own bed.
Thursday I returned to working on the kitchen; some drywall touch up, electrical work and such. It felt good to be active again - at least until I got up Friday when my body reminded me that I needed to take things slower and follow the restrictions that doctor gave me as far as lifting and taking things easy for a few weeks. It is hard for me to sit still when I see so many things that need doing. So I basically did nothing on Friday. However, Nathan showed up with the kitchen cabinets and started installing them; he brought his own help, so I just watched and cheered them on. They were able to install a majority of them that day. Nathan and his young son returned on Saturday for a half day to install the cabinet hinges and doors. The kitchen is taking shape, but isn't complete yet. He will return on Monday to hopefully finish, though I suspect there will be a couple of minor items that will linger. Even though the cabinets will be installed, the counter tops are scheduled to be installed late August; even though I made that appointment six weeks ago, they are that busy. I can use some of the old counter top temporarily and I have some plywood that can be cut to fit.
Here is the kitchen Friday morning:
Today was church. Good testimonies and a good Come Follow Me lesson focused on missionary work. It almost feels normal at church now with the restrictions removed.
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