I was on the calendar with my preferred surgeon, Dr William Catalona at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, for December 10th. He is the most experienced surgeon for the surgery I require. Not surprisingly, my insurance company wanted me to stay local.
I went back and forth on this with the insurance company for the first two weeks in December, which caused me to miss my original surgery date. Fortunately, I prevailed on appeal, and I'm now back on the calendar with Dr Catalona for next Monday 28 December.
I'll catch a ride up there with three of my daughters on Sunday afternoon, since I need to report to the hospital bright and early(!) at 5:30AM Monday. My daughters will be there to check on me on Monday before they head home again. I expect to catch a ride home myself on Wednesday evening, two days after surgery. Recovery should take an additional 3 to 4 weeks. I plan to be off my day job at the U of I until January 19th.
The quick background on my situation is that I have prostate cancer, but it was caught early, by a blood test (guys, get your PSA checked if you're over 40). A biopsy confirmed it, but there is no indication that it has had a chance to spread yet, as attested by the CT scan and Bone scan that I had right after I was diagnosed. The goal is a surgical cure that removes all affected tissue.
I'll post updates here periodically.
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