Considering getting the Urolift procedure for an enlarged prostate? It is a revolutionary new procedure that supposedly cures a lot of problems that come from an enlarged prostate. Does it hurt? Does it work? I thought I’d just share my experience so that anyone else (googling and looking for info) can gleam some insights.

Back to the hospital I go. It is October 29th. This time for an elective procedure (covered by insurance) called a ‘UroLift”. It sounds like cosmetic surgery to reduce wrinkles for European women, but it is actually for the prostate and mostly for men. It involves shoving cameras and tools up your…. um… well, you know… and literally stapling your prostate wide open.

The Procedure

Was it painful? No, not too bad. Uncomfortable, yes. And awkward. There were 6 people in the room including the doctor, nurses, and one student. Everyone was watching (including me) the whole procedure on a TV monitor. They were all very young, too. My doctor was just 36 years old, and the nurses were in their 20’s. So I felt old and exposed laying there on a pelvic-exam table (similar to a gynecologist table with stirrups) while kids joked and poked and stapled by junk. They will slide several metal objects up your penis, pump in some fluids and then empty your bladder, and then procedure to poke around until finding the right spot to attach the staples. It didn’t really hurt at all when he attached the staples.

I was given some Valium which did help. Also, there was some kind of numbing gel smeared on to my d***. I don’t know what that was. Overall, it wasn’t terribly painful, but unpleasant and uncomfortable most of the time. The procedure took about 30 minutes. When it was over, I was able to walk to a private room and just relax for awhile. I was also given a plastic bottle to pee in if necessary. Yes, it was necessary. One of the after-effects, I learned, of this procedure is that you will suddenly and urgently need to pee and can’t stop it. Also, as I discovered, it would be EXTREMELY PAINFUL TO PEE FOR ABOUT 24 HOURS. We’re talking blood and pain. Lots of blood and pain. Make you wanna scream pain. But the painful part of this ordeal began to quickly wane. Within 24 hours I was able to urinate without much pain. And within 48 hours there was no pain at all.

A weird (and kind of funny) moment came awhile after I was in my recovery room. No one ever came back to check on me. After about 2 hours, I began to get antsy and opened the door and wandered out into the hall. No one was in sight. Keep in mind this was Friday afternoon about 5 pm. It turns out that I was the last patient of the day, and all of the kids had packed up and GONE HOME! We’re done for the day! Ready for the weekend!!! Not only that, but they apparently forgot about me. Looking around in the hallway there was absolutely no one. Every office was empty. I ventured further…. with my butt fully exposed to the air by this hospital gown… and calling out “Hello??” “Anyone?” I made my way to the front desk, and suddenly they were like, “OMG, WE FORGOT YOU WERE BACK THERE!!” So a nurse helped me get dressed, performed a final sonogram to see how much (if any) fluids were still in my bladder, and then turned me loose. I requested a ‘pad’ or diaper because I could tell I wasn’t able to control my bladder movements. She gave me an adult diaper. It turned out to be a very good thing. Even on the way home, I had an ‘accident’, but the diaper saved the day. I also awoke in the middle of the night with a sudden urge to pee, scrambled toward the bathroom and didn’t quite make it. But thankfully the diaper saved the day (night) again.

Fortunately, those problems don’t last very long, and within about 48 hours the pain was gone. So was getting the UroLift worth it? Was it a miracle cure? I’ll update this blog in a week or so and let you know….

Update 11/9: Okay, all pain and blood has ceased, but the urgency of having to go pee at any moment of the day has not. I did stop taking the medication, so maybe I stopped too soon? I dunno. I’m going to start taking the medication again and see what happens. The doctor DID say it would take about 12 days before I’m completely recovered from this procedure…

Update: 11/23: Yes, finally the urgency to urinate is slowing down.  This took a lot longer than I expected, but finally, yes, I’ve been able to sleep through the night without having to get up and go pee (although, it has become so habitual that I sometimes get up and go pee by choice).  This problem hasn’t gone away completely.  I’ve still had a few situations where I had to stop everything… such as yesterday when I was walking through Walmart…. and suddenly I needed to pee.  I just dealt with it for about 60 seconds (wiggled, walked around, etc), and the urgency went away completely.  That is a BIG improvement!  I’m hoping that urgency problem will go away completely in the next few weeks.  

It is crazy the things the dogs drag into the house sometimes.  Suddenly, Penny comes trotting into the house carrying a juvenile oppossum!  No sign of momma, no explanation.  She just has a baby possum in her mouth!  OMG!  What the heck??   

He was bleeding a little bit from Penny’s bite.  I imagine she thought it was a danger, at first, and attacked.  But then realized it was docile (as possums always are) and just picked him and brought her prize to us.  

Even weirder, when this picture is taken and we view it later, there is some sort of creepy man in the background of the photo.  There was NO ONE in the kitchen!  But in this photo… there is.  What the #$%&?? 

We put the little critter in a doggy crate, and the next day Ivy and I took him (or her) to the SPCA in Houston.  It turns out they have an entire program for rehabilitating opossums and releasing them into a safe area.  So, hopefully, he will have a great new life somewhere else.  

Off we go on another cruise out of Galveston.  This time with a ship at half-capacity (about 1,600 people).   It was very relaxed and sort of like having your own giant private yacht.  

On Monday, I began to feel weak and dizzy. It persisted until the next day. And the next. Every time I sat up or stood up, I’d feel light-headed and even came close to passing out a few times. What the heck is happening?

On Thursday, I told Holly I’m going to go to the doctor and see what’s happening. I didn’t expect to spend the next 24+ hours in the hospital. As soon as I arrived, they took my blood pressure measurement and an alarm went off… my BP was dangerously low (50 – 90).

Long story short, I got a cat-scan and fluids and oxygen treatment and waited and waited and waited and waited… They moved me to the Methodist hospital on 610 and continued to do some tests. With lots of oxygen and water I began to feel better. It turns out my oxygen-levels in my blood were dangerously low. But why? They didn’t know. Something to do with my kidneys not functioning 100% correctly. I still don’t know fully what happened. But now I know to take some oxygen hits from over-the-counter products like “Boost Oxygen” and do some deep breathing exercises. It has worked. So I’ll keep doing that.

All the way from Arizon, Ray & Becky dropped in. We went to the Top Water Grill in San Leon, and then cruised the Texas City Dike. 🙂

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It’s been a few months since I’ve updated this blog. So I’m just gonna do a summary here. Life has been 4 months of extremes – disruptions, endurance, recovery, and the same old mind-numbing quarantine madness.

The most significant event, though, was the BIG FREEZE in February. It rarely ever snows in Houston. Hardly ever drops below 32 degrees (although, once in awhile it actually does). But on February 10th, the temps drops into the teens and 20’s and stayed there for days. Even worse, the electricity went off. So no more heat.

The house got super cold that night. Temperatures inside the house bottomed out at 38 degrees. We were all freezing and huddled up under layers of blankets and clothing.

Then no water. Pipes were frozen. Holly and Ivy escaped to Jane’s house and ended up staying 2 nights. Meanwhile, I stayed behind with Jose to take care of the animals.

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Fortunately, the electricity came back on, and temperatures rose slightly above freezing for the afternoon. So it was a little more comfortable. However – SPLOOOSH! The main water pipe outside of the house burst wide open. Jose and I spent all day fixing it. Not fun.

Within an couple of hours, though, of getting water into the house, ANOTHER pipe burst and water began pouring down through the fixtures in the bathroom! So we fixed that leak (very difficult). Then another pipe burst! And another! Altogether, 6 pipes had frozen and burst. Eventually, I discovered the spill above the bathroom was bad enough to damage the ceiling. I was 2 rooms away when I heard a big WHUMP…. and went to go see what that noise was… and sure enough, the bathroom ceiling had fallen in.

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Pipes and ceiling weren’t the only casualties of the Big Freeze. Several of our plants died. Both the orange tree and Meyer lemon tree bit the dust. The big fig tree in the front yard also never recovered. The giant plantain tree in the back yard was totally massacred. Our neighbor’s avocado tree which dropped delicious fruit over into our yard each year also didn’t survive.

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Well, life moved on. Other stuff that has occurred since then….

Late one night I was awakened by a huge WHOOOMP and then SMASH! It was a car that had went airborne over the railroad tracks and then smashed into a fence and telephone pole on the other side of the street. This was just half-a-block away from us. The driver survived and escaped before police arrived. Someone picked him (or her) up and sped away…. leaving the car and disaster there for someone else to deal with! I don’t know the final result, but here is the aftermath the next day….

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Got the Vax! Not that I’m thrilled about it. I’m definitely among the skeptics of the ‘science’ (fiction?) behind it all. But thanks, Trump, for making this happen. I must say, the whole process seemed creepily dystopian… waiting in line, mindlessly herded along like cattle to a slaughter…. put on a train to be taken to showers…. But I got the shot, and then quickly began to feel sick. I continued to have mild flu-like symptoms for the next 48 hours. Not fun.

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Our chicken supply has gradually dwindled over the past couple of years. Some have died naturally. Or maybe because of heat. Others have disappeared… presumably eaten by something (not us!). We went from 29 down to about 19. So, Holly decided to go get a new batch of chicks.

Santa brought me a nice robe and pair of socks very early Christmas morning! It was the breezy, open-in-the-back kind that hospitals give you when you go to the ER.

I spent most of December 24th and Christmas morning at Hermann Memorial Hospital because my old Kidney Stone. The pain started showing up on Wednesday and gradually got worse by Thursday (24th) morning. Around 1 p.m. I finally decided to go to the ER and see if I could get some pain meds. After a CAT scan and blood tests, the doctor said this kidney stone was too big to pass so I’d have to have surgery. What?!

So I get a fun ride in an Ambulance to another Methodist Hospital (610 & Ella) and spend a night of misery in a hospital room (no visitors due to Covid19). Surgery which was scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, but I was awake at 5 a.m. and trying on this new robe…

All went well. They put me out for about 1 hour even though it literally only seemed like 2 or 3 seconds to me. I woke up to some blood and pain, but fixed up (for now) and ready to check out of the hospital. I must say, the staff at the hospital did a GREAT job throughout my entire ordeal. Everyone was very attentive and jovial and seemed to be happy to be there. I thanked them for working on Christmas eve and morning.

Holly comes to pick me up, and back to the house we go for some Christmas dinner. Jane comes over as well, and the ladies cook up a 13 lb. turkey and lots of stuff(ing) to go with it. We also opened our presents and enjoy eating by an open-fire outside in the back yard (great weather today with temps at 70 and blue skies on Christmas day!). I didn’t take many pictures because, frankly, I was exhausted from this Kidney Stone ordeal and a bit loopy on pain meds.

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It was certainly a different Christmas experience this year…. for me, anyway. One I’ll certainly never forgot.

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Update 12/31/2020:

Okay, they sent me home with some medications and an appointment to return Dec. 31st So I did. Surgery happened on a rainy new year’s eve about noon. They prepped me and laid me on a bed and gave me anesthesia … that’s all that I remember.

Woke up without kidney stones! Oh, thank God!

What a fitting ending to such a weird year that is 2020. I spent both Christmas eve and day in the hospital, as well as New Year’s eve.

Covid19 has screwed everything up, including family get-togethers for the holidays. But regardless of the ‘science’ and ‘experts’ and the ignorant fear-infested liberal Democrat warnings to stay home and NOT associate with your disease infested dirty family, we decided to head north to Arkansas and enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. I was actually content to just stay home, but Ivy and Holly said let’s go! So we did.

We invited Jane Sommer, my mother-in-law, to go with us… and she said yes! So four of us (Holly, Ivy, Jane, and me) spent 10 hours driving to northern Arkansas. We took the scenic route up Hwy 7 from Hot Springs (spent the night there) to Harrison, and then on to Branson. Our objective was to get to a condominium in Branson, and then spend an afternoon at my brother’s house eating some Turkey. I had never been to his new house before, so it was a new experience. It was also different without Mom there (she was usually the Thanksgiving center-person). But, still, it was a nice visit and lots of good food. Thank you, Landus, for hosting this event!

We stayed in Branson and enjoyed a really nice condominium for our stay. One night, I asked Ivy and Jane if they wanted to go to Silver Dollar City. Ivy said NOOO (I think mainly because there were no other cousins to go with), but much to my surprise, Jane said YES! So Jane and I went to one of America’s top theme parks. We walked around for 4 hours. She enjoyed the parades and lights and shows, while I enjoyed the rollercoasters.

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I really wanted to try out the new spinning coaster “Time Travel”, and I have to say it did NOT disappoint. Wow, it is intense!

Silver Dollar City is GREAT and just keeps getting better. Their Christmas season is the best time of year to go, in my opinion. ZILLIONS of lights everywhere (6 million, I’m told). It is incredibly festive. Here’s a video… this is NOT MY VIDEO, but they attended SDC just 3 weeks before us, and it is a really good overview of Christmas at SDC. Go if you get the chance!

It was a very nice evening! I even rode 2 rides with Jane! She rode a tea-cup spinner type ride, and the classic dark-ride “Fire in the Hole”.

On our way back, we went through Little Rock and Texarkana, and finally spent the night in Marshall, Texas. Ivy and I went for a swim in the pool and then kicked back and watched a movie on HBO. Then we enjoyed the continental breakfast the next morning. It was a nice stay in the otherwise not-so-interesting Marshall, Texas. Finally, got back home and unspooled. Just in time for Holly to start her new job…

Btw, I took the Covid19 test on December 1st (two days after returning to Houston) and it was negative. Sorry, all of you crazy fear-driven Democrats! We didn’t catch a deadly disease as you predicted (hoped).

On October 3rd, Sawyer Yards had their bi-annual Art Crawl, although this time they called it a Walk for some reason. Lots of interesting art to gawk at, as well as meet the artists. These are just a few examples…

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Scored some free tickets! Off to RenFest we go…

It’s opening weekend with social-distancing rules in place, and mask-wearing mandatory.