Museum Irises

Before I proceed with my pre-written post, I want to thank you for your very kind comments over the past few days. I appreciate you a lot. Now, let me gloat by saying last night was probably my best sleep in years at what Sleepwatch pegs at 8:15. I did hit 8:00 once in the past year or three, but this was great, and incredibly better that the more common 5xx or even worse. Not having to get up four times because I was draining into a bag must really have helped. However, the bag will be detached tomorrow morning after one more day and one more sleep, and it will be nice to be untethered, at least in the daytime.

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I woke up quite early on Sunday morning. After doing my normal morning things on the computer and/or tablet, I decided to head out to the garden at the museum, which I think is referred to as the community garden.

While I didn't think surgery would restrict me too much, I am also advised to be careful and not lift more than ten pounds for six weeks. Whatever the case, I thought that I would go on a quick photoshoot.

Although I took photos of other flowers as well, my main goal was to see if the irises were blooming. Indeed they were, and some were even past their best.

I stuck my macro lens on, and used it throughout, even when I wasn't getting all that close because, while it is nice to have several lenses, it is not fun to change them on the job, so to speak. I didn't use a tripod and also hoped for the best in the breeze. Oddly enough, I think I like the final photo best although it is not a macro but a photo of the whole patch with much of the image, except for the two centre blooms, out of focus.

Reporting In

It’s 4:35 in the wee hours as I begin this post, in which I just want to check in briefly on the day after surgery.

Shauna picked us up at 10 yesterday morning, and we were at the hospital by 11. Because we were a half hour early, I thought I would just check in and be told that they would call me later. However, I was ushered ight in, put in my cubicle and given a hospital gown and so on and so forth.

My procedure was scheduled for 1:30, so I had two hours to kill. Fortunately, I had the nearest cubical to the washrooms. Following my previously-given orders, I hadn’t had anything to drink since 9 o’clock, but I still had to use the facilities three times.

They kept to the schedule well, and I was being wheeled off by 1:30 and was in recovery a little after 2pm, I think. I vailed myself with the pain meds I was offered — Dilaudid. As I sit here this morning, I am not in pain or discomfort, but I am tethered by a catheter for two days.

The surgery itself surprised me. I was given neither a spinal nor general anaesthetic but sedation. As far as I recall, I was awake throughout the short procedure. I felt great pressure once or twice but not pain per se, although as reported above, I did happily accept pain meds in recovery.

I think I was monitored in recovery with many blood pressure checks until 3:30, before being wheeled back to the cubicles to await Sue and Sha along with various instructions that included how to remove the catheter in due course. The nurse did explain the process to me before my ladies showed up, but I told her to tell my better half who still has some functioning brain cells  

We drove home in rush hour through the pouring rain, but Shauna was he usual, highly competent self, so we made it in just about an hour  

This morning, Sue saw my light on, and came in to check on me, but I am doing okay. It was more body temperature and the need for liquids issues combined with my usual sleep awfulness that woke me up. She’s back in bed getting her beauty rest, and I have my tablet and you folk in a way  

I have had my first coffee, played two, expert-level sudokus, without error I  hasten to add, before deciding to check in with y’all with this quick overview. I say quick, but it has taken a while to write, reread edit and add, as I am doing right now. I should probably look it over again, but I am going to throw caution to the wind and hit Publish regardless.

Hoping

The Snoopy image seems very appropriate this morning, for this is the day of my 4th prostate surgery. 

Shauna will pick us up sometime after 10 o’clock and drive us to Riverside hospital in Ottawa. I have been commanded to present myself by 11:30 for a date with the knife, two hours later. The plan seems to be to discharge me sometime around 4 to 5 o’clock. Then, we will find our way home during rush hour.

I am just two years and two days from my 3rd prostate surgery and was reminded of that when I posted of the smoke yesterday. There was so much smoke in the atmosphere two years ago that our local hospital cancelled surgery. Fortunately, the hospital in Smiths Falls, where I had my surgery, did not follow suit.

Previous surgeries have been the normal TURP procedure.

TURP, or Transurethral Resection of the Prostate, is a surgical procedure to treat urinary problems caused by an enlarged prostate gland, often due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). It involves inserting an instrument called a resectoscope through the urethra to visualize and remove or cut away excess prostate tissue that is obstructing urine flow. (Google AI Overview)

Today's 4th procedure will be different.

Cold knife incision of the bladder neck contracture with mitomycin C injection is a surgical procedure to treat bladder neck contracture, a narrowing of the bladder neck, often caused by scar tissue after prostate surgery. The procedure involves making small cuts in the bladder neck using a cold knife and then injecting mitomycin C, a chemotherapy drug, into the incision site to prevent scar tissue formation and recurrence. This approach is considered a safe and effective treatment option for bladder neck contracture. (Google AI Overview)

It would be very wonderful if this Cold Knife variation were to work for me. Mitomycin is a chemotherapy drug. While I don’t have cancer, this drug can also inhibit “the growth of other rapidly growing cells by damaging their DNA.”

Let us hope that this surgery is just what I need, for it is apparent that my prostate is really quite insistent on having its way with me. I am almost at my 78th birthday, and I first noticed symptoms when I was 39 years old. That is a half life of frequent and slow trickling.

Smoke

The smoke from the western forest fires reached us last week. How it travels thousands of kilometres is quite astounding. At least, I think this smoke is from the faraway fires in northern Manitoba and not from something closer. Although air quality has taken a bit of a hit, it still liveable for most of us, so we weren’t hesitant to spend a bit of time in Riverside Park on both Friday and Saturday.

I think you can see the haze well enough in these photos but also that we were not overcome. 

I was taken by the shape of the tree in the following photo. I had not noticed it before, and I am guessing that it has been trimmed somewhat recently. Perhaps, however, I had simply overlooked it, for it is very much like me to not notice things because my mind is some place other than where my body happens to be. .

Yesterday, we took yet another selfie after we finished our coffee.

Then, we got a picture of Sue to satisfy yesterday’s theme: Cover.

As I sit in my good ole chair on this early Sunday morning, a glance out the window informs me that the smoke remains. Alexa has told me that it will stay with us until late afternoon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she extends that estimate, as she has done several times in the past few days.

Rainbow Lights

I am not as dedicated to photography as I once was. As you have witnessed, when we go on our walks, I am often content to let Sue take the shots with her better phone. Even at the raising of the Pride flag, we both used our phones, not my big camera.

However, at that event, they mentioned that in honour of the beginning of Pride month, the bridge lights would be configured to show a rainbow of colours this week. While the light the bridge in white lights nightly, they do put on a special display periodically, and there have been a few times when I meant to take some photos, but the weather and/or tiredness has made me stay home in the end.

The weather is getting better now, so this time we did go out. The conditions still weren't great with winds and an almost blank and smoky sky, but we decided to make the best of it.

We've shot the bridge lights many times before, but I wanted to get a slightly different angle, one with some foreground, so I chose a spot, lowered my tripod and sat on the grass waiting for the evening to get darker.

I decided to take three exposures. One would be underexposed to darken the sky and lights. Two would be lighter for the buildings. I would later blend them in Lightroom. After some editing, this is the result.

Having done that, I decided to take two more photos, using the three-exposure technique. Without adjusting the tripod, I did zoom in with the lens and took this photo. In my opinions, it didn't turn out as well as the other two, but when I posted all three on fb, my friend thought that he liked this best. Oddly enough, I had even debated whether to bother posting it either there or here.

Once again, leaving the tripod in place, I switched the camera to vertical or portrait mode and got this result. I think the lights came out best in this one, possibly because the night was darker by the time I took this photo. I probably started the shoot a little too early because I get anxious to get on with it.

It was good to get out with the big camera for a change for a specific shoot involving more care and thought than just raising the camera and shooting. I got into longish exposures, so the tripod was a necessity, and using it makes me feel as though I am taking the craft more seriously. Having said that, it is a bother to port it around unless one has a specific need.

Just a Fork

I was looking to lose weight and decided to explore keto dieting. We had experience with the Adkins low carb version back in the 70s — so long ago, eh? It worked, but there are associated problems, many of which are listed here. If memory serves me well, most didn't seem to be a big deal for us, but then Sue developed ketoacidosis or DKA. 

Nevertheless, science advances, and fifty years later, I was pretty sure that a keto diet could be done safely, so I bought book to try to figure out just how to go about it. I soon decided that it wasn't for me, but, oddly enough, I am also still confident that it can be done safely and effectively. Just not by me.

As it happened, I didn't get too far with the book and gave up on the keto notion toute de suite because it seemed to be too involved for lil ole me to do it right. Early in the book, I think that I had already been advised to purchase three kitchen aids in preparation for this diet. It was seeming like a lot. Nevertheless, I plodded on but soon closed the book with a final thud when I got to the fourth recommended device — a machine to make spaghetti-like noodles from zucchini.

It was an appliance too far, as it were.

That was back in January, but when this ↓↓ image recently popped on everybody's favourite social media app, I smiled and decided to share it and a bit of the above context (as I have written above) with my fine blogging friends.

On the other hand, we do make spaghetti squash from time to time. Just a fork does it.

Lost in my Pocket

Our walks are getting briefer and slower. I have been hobbling with my right foot for awhile, and now the  knee is acting up. It's like it locks when I am walking or sometimes even when I am sitting. Sue has also been having some trouble with her foot and now has stubbed her toes so badly that two toes are very bruised and swollen.

But the weather has improved, so we keep on keeping on.

Rather than expend energy by walking to the neighbourhood park, we drove, and once there, were able to stroll along the trail for a way. We spied a little family of geese next to the pond.

On another day, the heron showed up at the pond. He made photography difficult by staying either in the bushes or at a distance, but Sue did her best.

On  another occasion  we went to Riverside Park where canoes drew the eye as they always do.

Before our next and final walk, for this post anyway, a funny thing occurred. I donned my new, tighter and better fitting shorts. When we were ready to set out, I patted my pocket for the car keys. They weren't there. I searched and searched; they weren't anywhere. I have a Tile attached, so I activated the app. It was beeping crazily, so the keys were nearby, but I still couldn't find them. I looked in all of the same places and patted myself down again but kept coming up empty.

In frustration, I patted my right pocket one more time, and there they were.

It's the new shorts, I tell you. The pockets are aligned a bit differently, so the keys were not where I normally pat my pockets and where I have been locating them for many a decade. Sue just rolls her eyes.

We then drove to the trail bridge on a very beautiful day where I snuck a picture of a cyclist who stopped to gaze up the river.

The other sight for yesterday was the flowers by the abandoned building where I have earlier photographed crocuses and squill. We found pretty little white flowers that the app identified as Star of Bethlehem. There were also a few forget-me-nots in the frame.

Now, I have a bit of an earworm.

"Beautiful Star of Bethlehem" is a popular Christmas song, particularly within gospel and bluegrass traditions. It's a traditional carol that often appears in hymnbooks and has been recorded by many artists, including the Stanley Brothers, Emmylou Harris, and Rhonda Vincent. (Google AI)