Gary’s Cancer Journey Update 13: Pre-Surgery Prep & Prostate Insights ||

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Welcome to Update 13 of Gary’s cancer journey! Gary shares updates from two key pre-surgery appointments, where nurses conducted a detailed health check and explained the surgery and recovery process. He was surprised to learn about the prostate’s size from a model shown by a nurse—it’s bigger than he thought! Your support means the world to Gary. Join us as he continues his journey with strength.    About the Prostate: The prostate is a walnut-sized gland in men, about 3-4 cm in diameter and weighing 20-30 grams, per the National Cancer Institute. Located below the bladder and in front of the rectum, it surrounds the urethra (the tube carrying urine and semen through the penis). It produces seminal fluid to nourish sperm, crucial for reproduction. The prostate can enlarge with age or conditions like prostate cancer, often requiring surgical treatment.    Like, comment, and follow for more updates! Follow Gary’s story: https://direct.me/suvisjournalism    #CancerJourney #ProstateCancer #CancerUpdate #MensHealth #ProstateHealth #CancerSupport #HealthAwareness #CancerWarrior #MedicalJourney

Transcript

00:00So we're here with Gary again who's kindly agreed to continue sharing his

00:05story and I really think that's important because we're here for another

00:09update and you've got a lot of information now about the procedure

00:13that's coming up which is actually coming up fast. Yeah, only one week away.

00:18Yeah, so you had a couple of appointments yesterday. Yes, I had two appointments

00:23yesterday, one at Varsity Lakes Day Hospital and one at Gold Coast University.

00:28The first one was the pre-admission one which is the main one you have to have

00:33before you can have an operation and went in there. It was probably two hours I was in there for.

00:40Oh really? Yeah and they get to go over it because they they test and check everything.

00:45Like what? What do they check? Oh, your height, weight. They put a heart monitor on all over your chest and

00:52you're on that for a while while they're checking your heart rate and everything to make sure

00:57everything goes all good under anesthetic. They take blood, urine sample, just everything,

01:06your blood pressure, the whole lot. They go right through and then discuss it all now what's

01:11what's happening and stuff in a week's time and give you all the information like a lot of brochures and

01:19that that you can read afterwards and you get the sponges there on that yesterday to actually make

01:27sure the night before the operation and the day of the operation when you shower you've got to use

01:32special sponges which obviously got disinfectant like to make sure you're cleaned for the operation

01:40and then I went to had to rush off to Gold Coast University Hospital then to get to my second

01:47appointment just made it nearly had to nearly run late but made it and I spoke to the nurse a lady

01:54called Debbie there which been at the Gold Coast Hospital for years and she goes over the before and

02:01after so so um what happens on the day when you come in where you're going with the ward they know

02:09everything about that and then after the side effects and how to take care of everything and stuff so

02:15yeah that's she was very informative about everything and filled me in on the whole prostate thing which

02:24same again first not many people do talk about a lot of people have that operation and then go away and you

02:31know come good and most people come out the other side they're healthy and everything but they you

02:37know unless you know someone pretty direct they don't talk about it like you know like a lot of

02:42operations they you know people just go and get things done and don't discuss it with anyone but

02:47i believe yeah men are we are the worst of course but i think it is good to actually talk about it because

02:54it's it's more and more men are getting prostate cancer so if you know more about it you're obviously

03:00going to go to the doctor earlier and you're going to notice sight of things would actually happen

03:07with your body so you might think oh that's not quite right something's going on there so you might

03:12go to the doctor and get checked out but even that's not uh um for sure because you still have no

03:19symptoms absolutely yeah like we said that in one of the other interviews no symptoms whatsoever every

03:24time i go and talk to them like even debbie yesterday um do you have any effects urinating

03:31anything and i say everything normal like there's just nothing where i could say oh yeah there is

03:38something going on there but nothing so it's not a sure thing the only way is to go to the doctor

03:43and get the tested checked out and then go and get um mris or whatever and the the psa yeah yeah

03:52because if they do that and that's high of course there's there's issues so um i didn't realize the

04:00prostate operation was such a big deal like yeah like i i honestly thought the prostate was something

04:06like an appendix or or even getting your tubes tied like like women do i thought it was just a minor thing

04:11yeah yeah and i i never had any idea really like like you say you you just hear the prostate removal

04:19or operation but it's the prostate is quite large because i think debbie had a model yesterday with

04:28with uh where you could pull apart like they'd have to show you when you go and check these things out

04:34and i'm pretty sure it was life-size like and the prostate was quite large like as big as a couple of

04:41eggs or not tennis ball but quite large so that's in the middle of your bladder and

04:51connects on to the back of your penis and when they they take that out yeah there's quite a large gap so

04:59then they've got to join the i'll say tubes join them back together and that's got to heal for a couple

05:05of weeks so that's why you got a catheter in for two weeks like which everyone said through your

05:13urethra like it is yeah it has to heal yeah the whole like when that joins back together that's

05:20it's a quite a process to heal so that's why you got the catheter for a couple of weeks because

05:25she said yesterday everyone just says the catheter is the worst part yeah uncomfortable hurts everything but

05:32the reason for it is to give your wound time to heal because like the catheter goes right up into

05:39the bladder and drains the bladder before it you know gets um infects because if you weren't never

05:46had that catheter in yeah it would get infected or something so oh yeah because you're using the

05:51urethra and your urine's going through there and so yeah and what about muscles do they cut through muscle

05:57as well in removing the prostate yeah oh yeah your nerve systems run lap around the prostate which the

06:06nerves would so you can have an erection and stuff yeah so they get damaged not damaged they they try their

06:13best but that's why after the operation yeah you can't get an erection for and hopefully not too long but

06:24it affects that and all that yes sexual side of things and stuff so yeah so guys do get a lot of

06:32for obvious reasons very concerned about that because i did do that article on prostate cancer

06:37for the australian and yes that's yeah yeah that is a concern but with with therapy and um what did

06:45debbie say yesterday that if you have fit and healthy beforehand yeah that's going to help them

06:49recovery after yeah it the healthier are the better that is and if you have no issues with sexual

06:59erections beforehand that helps their muscles recover a lot quicker so yeah hopefully that's all good and

07:05then down the track we'll be back good again and what about um like you know um the there could be

07:13incontinence as well after yeah that's that's the other thing um because because when they remove the

07:21prostate the prostate the muscles around the prostate um actually stop you like it's like a plug so you

07:32you're walking around that's plugged and you you don't wet yourself yeah but as soon as they remove that

07:38the plug's gone so then you know you've got no control so that's why the earlier you can start

07:47doing pelvic floor exercises which same again you hear women are doing pelvic floor exercise or men

07:55should be doing them too in case you know this happens because the stronger you are in the pelvic

08:02floor well as soon as your your mind says oh you want to go to the toilet or you clench your pelvic floor

08:11and stop yourself from wetting yourself so how interesting that then because you've done some

08:18of the exercises yeah a friend of mine had this operation just on a year ago yeah and when i rang him

08:25up and told him that i was going to have the operation he said one of the main things i can tell you

08:31check out um find out some of someone how to do these exercises it'll be help you so much in advance

08:40because you've already started doing them and when i was there yesterday she told me like explained how

08:46to do them properly and gave me a paper on um doing it so you've i've got to do that exercise

08:55i think it's four times a day and make sure you build up their muscles because the stronger their

09:02muscles are in your pelvic floor the better it'll be the better yeah absolutely so while i'm sitting here

09:09now i'm doing my pelvic floor exercises she said she said you should be able to do them and no one

09:21even knows so you don't have to be holding your breath and stressing you should be able to just

09:27do the exercise and no one know you're doing it so so it was interesting like she explained it really

09:34well that's nice and she's going to be sort of looking out for you yeah yeah yeah after the

09:41operation the you're going to recovery of course then up in the ward and she said that she will be

09:47up and around and i think she it's the lady where it'll be removing the catheter in two weeks time which

09:54i'll be only in hospital for three or four days maybe five depends on what goes on but

09:59obviously have to go back in two weeks time to get it removed which will be a good thing

10:06oh yeah that'll be such a relief yeah pretty restricting well gary me and everyone else who's

10:15been supporting are continuing to support you and just very good luck in the lead up to this now yeah

10:22no it should be all good and we'll come out the other side a new man

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