And now, to come to some physical health news about me. It's behind the cut because it is bad news but, let me stress this, it is the least possible amount of bad news that could still be any bad news at all, and that I am fine and look to be fine as long as anyone in 2026 can hope to be fine.
So it turns out I have prostate cancer. A very small amount --- only one sample of the twelve taken in my biopsy came back with anything --- and the doctors evaluating it agreed it looked non-aggressive. And the sample was sent to another lab for some kind of second-level screening and it turned out there wasn't enough cancerous material for the test to conclude anything, which the nurse explaining the results to me said was the best non-conclusive result to get.
This started with my routine checkup; my PSA (prostate-specific antigen) level had risen dramatically over the year before, and while it wasn't outside the normal range the physician assistant doing my checkup wondered what that was all about. After getting in touch with the recommended urologist they had me submit a urine sample drawn at home for some reason; I mailed it in to their lab and they came back asking me to do another one, this time with the first urination of the day. At the time I supposed that reflected the sample being inconclusive; now, I wonder if it's that the first was used for an easy-to-run first screening and the second a more sensitive test. (Every test has a rate of giving false positives, and the more true negatives you can screen out easily makes better use of the more-sensitive and probably more demanding tests.)
From the results of that, they wanted to do a proper biopsy, like, bringing me into an operating room and giving anaesthesia and all. This required two separate pre-op checkups, one with my regular doctor (or, actually, another doctor because my primary was busy with something else that week) and then another with the urologist again. And so a week before Christmas I had a Tuesday off of work, to spend fasting and being driven to their clinic on the southern side of town, as ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger would need to drive. Don't worry, it was snowing just enough to be a lousy, slushy mess the whole way.
My surgery appointment was for 1:00 and they wanted us there a half-hour early and when we got there the parking lot was full --- we had to park around another medical office building --- and the waiting room was just about full and the status sign already said the doctor was running an hour late. While they brought me (and bunnyhugger) back not too far past 1:00, they had me laying on a hospital bed for a very, very long time, while apparently everyone else in the world went ahead of me. I ended up nodding off a fair bit, or at least closing my eyes and hanging out, while bunnyhugger fumed at having her whole day eaten up by this. Every twenty minutes or so someone popped their head in to confirm I knew my name, date of birth, doctor, and what I was there for, at least.
Finally, finally, they wheeled me back for the actual biopsy, which used the same anaesthetic as my colonoscopy a couple years ago. And was projected to take about the same time, too. I remember, as with the previous experience, going into the room and the start of the small talk as I rolled onto my left side and then oh, I was waking up and being given juice. I'm not much of a juice drinker but this is definitely an exception, not least because I'd had to completely fast --- no food or drink --- from midnight and it was now about 5 pm.
Finally they discharged me, late enough in the day that the waiting room had actually closed and they had to unlock it for us to grab our winter coats. I was feeling pretty normal by the time I left the building, at least, and didn't feel any particular discomfort the rest of the day. And, right after getting some medicine for our pet mice and then some food, we went right into the split-flipper zen tournament at pinball and did much better than we had reason to expect.
The next several days, by the way --- as they warned might happen --- bits of blood and coagulent that were cut loose in the process of taking the biopsy worked their way into my urethra. So for a while there I was peeing blood which you might think sounds kinda metal, and let me correct you: it is totally metal. I can't say I recommend having to have a biopsy or having a prostate cancer scare, but it's kind of awesome to have that side effect, for a short while.
To the serious bits, though, they had me come in for a 7 am appointment on the coldest, darkest day Earth has ever had, and were somehow a half-hour late to that, to explain the results, which I kind of already knew since ``all the tests came back negative'' isn't the sort of thing they ask you to make an appointment for. And as said at the top, the results are a very small bit of cancer spotted, that appears to be the least bad-looking kind that still makes the grade, and that looks to be non-aggressive. The plan is to do blood tests every few months for the next year, to look for PSA and whatever other blood-based markers they can find, and in December, a year on the initial diagnosis, see where things stand. And there's nothing particular I need to do for prostate health; just keep myself healthy all over, so far as I can.
So, with the male members of my family notified, I feel okay turning the news over to you all.
And I just want to get ahead of things and thank everyone for their support and kind words and thoughts. Again, though, I'm as fine as anyone can be.
On a vastly lighter note, then, let's get closer than you imagine to the end of our day at Plopsaland De Panne.
Train's on the move again and here's beloved Land of the Lost star the ankylosaur!
We were a little early for this ride. Too bad.
Did put my arm up over the construction fence to see what progress they'd made on it, though.
This is a Viking-themed boat ride, sailing along a pretty comfortably long track, and --- it turns out --- shooting water cannons at other boats and people on the docks who have their own water guns.
Going into the boat ride we spotted this pigeon going about their business.
And her's a view of the course, which is satisfyingly long and offers a lot of nice chances to approach and draw away from other boats. It was fun riding. Also the 'rafts' and other 'boats' had targets you could shoot to make stuff happen.
Trivia: The basilica which we know as the Hagia Sophia was built as a replacement of a timber-roofed basilica which burned in 532 AD, which was itself was a replacement of a timber-roofed basilica that burned in404 AD. However, earthquakes in 553, 537, and 558 collapsed the original dome and the church was rebuilt with a higher dome made of ligher bricks, rededicated in 562. Source: Force: What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop, Henry Petroski.
Currently Reading: A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Maury Klein.
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Date: 2026-01-11 02:44 pm (UTC)I'll pray it remains non-aggressive/small.