Monday, July 18, 2011

Tomorrow is D-Day.

By this time tomorrow I should be about to check into the hospital for my little procedure.

For those that are interested, this is a fairly good article explaining exactly what's going to happen.

http://www.rmg.md/cancers/prostate/seed-implant/brachytherapy.htm

My job in all of this is to show up, and lie still while they slip the IV in the vein.

Then it's off to sleepy town!

And then wake up again after it's over. As I understand, the going to sleep part is easy. But sometimes the 'wakey-wakey' part is a problem.

Various people over the last few days have asked me if I'm nervous or anxious about the procedure.

Not really. I suppose I could work myself into a tizzy be imagining every horrible outcome there could be. Running that scenario over and over in my head until I was a basket case.

No thank you. Been there. Done that.

You know, we harp on people for living in the past and missing out on the present. And I'm sure we all know someone like that. But living in the future is no better. Well, it is if you fantasize an ideal future, but how many of us do that? No, we run every possible situation we can imagine, trying to 'prepare'. But reality is never as we imagine. So why go there?

That's what causes worry and anxiety.

Here's a 'Davidism'. (Feel free to use it so long as you credit me as the originator. :)) Worry is nothing more than fantasizing failure. Think about that for a minute.

The best words regarding worrying, and ones that I've probably posted before, are from the Dali Llama. "If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever."

I've heard him condense this to: "If there is a problem, and you can do something about it - no worries. If there is a problem and there is nothing you can do about it - there is no reason to worry."

So there you are, and here I am.

I'll post more when I get back from the other side.

See you soon.