Today is the one year anniversary of my prostatectomy. I go in for my 4th quarterly visit with my urologist September 13th. I have to have the blood draw for my PSA test no later than September 9th.
I feel well. Now that my diabetes is under control and numbers are still under control, other things seem to be going well.
For over a week I have not had to get up in the middle of the night to pee. The last few mornings, I’ve awakened with a dry continence pad. So last night, I tried sleeping without a continence pad. I awoke dry!
I can finally transition back to boxers. (Continence pads don’t sit right in anything other than briefs.)
I owe this to two things, in my opinion:
- Getting my diabetes under control. (I was diagnosed in May after a sudden weight loss over the prior two months.)
- Renewed diligence in doing Kegels. (I encourage all to figure out how to do Kegels. It will help you as you age, and if you ever have bladder reconstruction, you’ll be ahead of the game.)
I’ve been going without a continence pad except when sleeping for a few months now. Occasionally, I’d wear one if I was away from home for an extended time, just in case. I don’t recall the last time I put one on before leaving the house.
I suspect that I’d be at this point a few months ago, had I had a healthier diet to avoid the slide into diabetes, and been more diligent in doing Kegels. I was told I have to keep doing Kegels the rest of my life to maintain continence. I think the price of not dying a horribly painful death from cancer is well worth the price.
Diabetes causes other issues, such as impaired sexual function and nerve damage. I don’t know if that’s the cause of mine, or just that the nerve was damaged during the prostatectomy. I’m sure that my lack of effort in maintaining a healthy diet, weight, and amount of exercise/physical activity surely didn’t help.
I know about a healthy diet, weight, and amount of exercise from growing up watching my Dad not do what he needed to do. I paid attention in health and science classes in high school and college. I have all the knowledge I need to know what to do. But the inertia to change habits is hard to overcome.
I encourage you to set a healthy example for your kids. Get up and at least take a family walk around the block, or find a safe place to take a family bike ride. Eat a healthy diet and greatly limit sugary snacks and drinks. You’ll be around longer to enjoy your family and they to build memories. You’ll be able to do fun things with the grandkids instead of watching them from the sidelines.
Diet alone goes a long ways, but just a bit of physical activity helps your metabolism do its thing.
Simple things like mow your own yard with a push mower instead of paying a service or buying a riding lawn mower. You can save money and improve your health.
Find a way to keep active all year round. A stationary bicycle can be purchased for about $200.00. You can ride it while watching TV. Eliminate all excuses to avoid being active.
If you have a two story house or a basement, walk up and down the stairs ten times without stopping or being winded. If you can’t do that, it’s a sign of diminished heart and lung capacity and of a potential cardiac incident is near.
Your body will last a lot longer if you just do a few things to tweak its performance and keep it running smoothly.
If you don’t have time to exercise, then you don’t have time to eat that package of cookies or chips, or container of ice cream, or drink a soda.
If you “can’t afford” to eat healthy, make sure that isn’t an excuse. If you do take out for every meal, you can afford to eat healthy. If you don’t like to cook, make a sandwich for lunch with whole grain bread, lean lunch meat such as turkey, with tomatoes and romaine lettuce. Eat an apple for a sweet snack. Fix a bag of frozen vegetables for supper with protein of your choice, fish, chicken, turkey, etc.
Fish can be bought frozen and you can bake it at 350 F for 15-20 minutes. Chicken frozen can be baked at 350 F for about an hour, much less if thawed. Buy in bulk.
I like most fruits and vegetables so I have no issue eating well. I don’t feel deprived and my cravings for sugary foods have been sporadic and easily ignored.
My bank account has grown since I quit eating so much fast food, and my diabetes was brought under control by improved diet along with insulin. The amount of insulin is down to one shot a night, from 3 before each meal and then 1 at bedtime. I now just have one at bedtime. I also have a weekly non-insulin shot that will be my only shot soon.
I’m doing more exercise, which I notice my glucose is even better when I get some exercise. My glucose is better for a few days after I mow my lawn. It takes me about 90 minutes since it’s a double lot.
I know what I need to do to be healthy and keep my body strong to do what I want when I want. I’m committed to overcoming the inertia of not exercising or being active.
I went on a bike ride with my granddaughter this evening. She loves spending time with me, and while she can’t keep up with me and I had to ride slow and keep stopping, I got more exercise than sitting at home. There’s a paved hiking/bike trail a half mile from my house. I can get in a 5 mile walk or bike ride. If I did that every day, just 20 or 30 minutes or so by bike, I get all the workout I need to stay active.
Please learn from my decades long mistakes and change now. Don’t regret nearly 40 years of poor eating habits, like I do. I probably could have avoided diabetes all my life had I eaten better and just been slightly more active. That would also keep me from needing meds for high blood pressure. If I keep a healthy weight and keep my blood glucose under control, I can get down to only needing an antihistamine for my seasonal allergies.
The less meds you take, the less extra work your liver and kidneys have to do. You don’t want either liver or kidney failure. My Mom died of fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic cirrhosis, and my Dad died of kidney failure. Both were terrible to watch your parents go through that. Liver failure makes you not know where and who you are, and kidney failure causes immense pain as your cells fill up with garbage your body can’t eliminate.
I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to be in unbearable pain, wasting away. Being more intentional in eating right and being active decreases the chances of dying of some of the more slow and painful health conditions.
This may seem overly dramatic and where’s the celebration for one year since surgery?
I do celebrate, but I can’t relax. I must focus on healthy eating and a bit of physical activity. I can have a bit of cake or ice cream at a birthday party, but not every day. I don’t like feeling gross like I did with uncontrolled diabetes. Nor did I like the loss of visual acuity. I don’t want to go blind or have them start chopping bits off me when I get a wound that wont heal.
One of my great-great-grandfathers died of gangrene brought on by diabetes in the days before insulin. His daughter, my great-great aunt told of him walking around the house in his long johns while wearing his boots. When he propped his foot up, she tore off his boot and one of his toes went with it. Then the sickly sweet smell of gangrene was apparent.
He had developed a sore on his foot and he tried to hide it. It developed gangrene and he died of sepsis in 1940, before penicillin was widely available.
I’ve met too many people who’ve had more and more of their toes, feet, and legs amputated working their way up ahead of the dying tissue. Then there’s blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke. All things diabetes increases the risk for.
I’ve heard too many stories, I’ve known too many people, I’ve had my own taste of it. Don’t go down this road. Turn back before it’s too late!
Men's Health in My Perspective 