Age of the Web
I met with a prostate surgeon this morning about a Laparoscopy using something called the da Vinci Surgical System. This is the one that uses computerized robot arms, 3-D cameras and looks like something out of Star Wars. My guess is this is the future for prostate surgery. My guess is if I elected to go with it, it would go well. Less time in the hospital, a radically shorter recovery period. It's just, it's new. State of the art. The surgeon I talked with has done a total of twenty operations. Twenty is too few. He's done hundreds using the old open 'em up and sort it out technique, but I'm going with the surgeon at Stanford. I know from reading about him on the web and from recommendations from other doctors I trust he's one of the best. Bet on the best, hold your breath and watch the silent man behind the black glasses spin the wheel. And don't worry about it. (Sound of laughter from the bullshit machine in the background. "Don't worry about it.")
Well, all right, all right, but I've come to some tentative terms with this thing. I've had two major operations in my life and both have gone well. Not fun, but not the end of the world, either. The question is what might they find? Evidently this incontinence thing is less common than I was first led to believe. It takes time, a full year to totally sort it out, but basically it's down around 2% to 3% who end up wearing diapers. That's similar to the percentage who find the cancer has spread. So, do my paperwork, get the second unit of blood drawn on Thursday and take six weeks off starting November 18th. Six weeks away from work. Repeat that. Six weeks away from work.
One of the singers we managed back in the old days is kicking off a tour this Tuesday with a gig in San Francisco. MSM gave me a call to say a number of people we knew from the old days in San Francisco have said they would attend, faces I haven't seen in years. I'm going to pick up MRW and a friend of his on the way to the gig. Good to see him again. I'm looking forward to it to the point I've arranged to take the next morning off work. I'll bring a camera, but I'm not sure how much I will write about it, at least in any personal sense. I talk too much. I've always talked too much. Not good in the age of the web.
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