Follow up...

 

18 months since someone harvested my prostate.  I hope they're happy with it - apparently, it was trying to do me in.  Today was my follow up visit with the doctor.  They take blood, ask a bunch of rather personal questions, and seem fine charging Medicare for it.  I understand that each of these blood tests is an indicator of the recurrence of cancer.  On my last follow up, the PSA number was up a bit from the previous check up, but still considered "remission."  I don't know how long these follow ups go on.

It probably violated some HIPAA rule, but I heard a guy in the hallway saying it had been 14 years since his prostatectomy.  14 years?  A year ago, the surgeon told me to "go have a good life" after that follow up... and then: "We'll see you again in 6 months."

When we have to drive into the big city - OK, Harlingen isn't that big - we try to take care of other things when going there.  Today, it was get stuff at H.E.B., get stuff at Sam's Club, lunch, go to our storage unit to drain the water out of the holding tank in the motorhome, put some stuff in the storage unit, and the doctor's appointment.

It's a good thing we planned extra time: we got caught for almost an hour on the Expressway when traffic got stopped due to an accident right before a construction zone.  We decided lunch would be drive up at Chick-fil-A and the traffic slowdown put us in the middle of their lunch rush.  Fortunatly, Chick-fil-A does a better job at moving people through than whoever was in charge of that mess on the Expressway.  I'm kidding - no one was in charge of that mess on the Expressway.

We thought we'd have at least an hour and a half at the storage unit... we needed to get through that task in a half hour in order to be there early for the doctor appointment.  We got 'er done.

 Fresh water tank emptied.  Water heater emptied.  Sta-bil run into the engine and generator.  Nothing leisurely about this part of the day, then on to the doctor's office, which was the main reason we were out and about today.

They did all the stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph.  She (the doctor) said, "You look like you're staying fit."

I said, "Doing what I can for an old guy."

She said, "You're not that old."

I said, "Compared to a giant redwood?  You have my age in your file there."  Whippersnapper.  A little pep talk ("Keep doing what you're doing"), another prescription, a "we'll call you if anything doesn't look good", and the expected: "See you again in 6 months."

You know that's how often Medicare will pay for the blood test.  Coincidence?