Today I visited the VA Outpatient clinic in Georgetown for the results of my annual blood work. I was also meeting for the first time my new doctor who is actually a nurse practitioner.
The good news:
All signs are good.
My PSA crept up a little bit as it has done in previous blood tests but it still is under one on a scale of one to four. Four years ago my PSA score spiked up to 8.7. That's when I discovered I had prostate cancer which I had treated. After my treatment my PSA was .1. Last year it crept up to .23. Now it is .31. I half expect my prostate cancer will return but I'm at that age (old enough) that I'll probably die of something else besides prostate cancer. Whatever, I'm not getting any more treatments for prostate cancer. If that's the way I go, so be it. After all, something is going to get me.
The other good news is that I like my new care doctor. He's a young man, handsome, caring, knowledgeable and he actually listened to me. I was with him for over an hour. I hope I have him as my health care professional until I make my grand exit. I'm very lucky, all my doctors now I like. My urologist I didn't like so I changed a couple of years ago. That doctor could hardly spend more than two minutes with me and he hurt me often. He also had no respect for my privacy and humiliated me often by his rushing around just to get as many patients in and out as possible. I had enough and I changed. Later I found out at my new urologist's office, who had opened a new offer her in Lower Slower, why did they open an office from far away their main office in Dover. They told me they were getting a lot of patients traveling to their office in Delaware who weren't satisfied with the treatment they were getting from my doctor. So I wasn't the only one which made me feel good and not just an old man complainer.
I also got my second (and final) shingles shot. My left arm feels like someone gave me a good solid knuckle punch. But at least (hopefully) I won't get shingles, which I've never had but I hear are very painful. I've had enough pain in my life with my multiple kidney stones, I don't need any more pain, thank you.
Another day in the life folks!