Nov 18 - what gets your blood pressure up ?

I headed north to Jacksonville around 5am, Mayo clinic here we come.  Stopping for gas before hitting I95, but no other stops, it took just over 1:30 and I was in the parking lot and in the building by 7:45. 

It's quite the complex -- a campus really -- and I was only in one of the buildings, the Davis building.  The reception area was vast, probably seats 200, with a dozen or more stations for registration, check-in etc.  I had two appointments in that area, really three - check-in, name called and then register with the Finance guy -- yeah -- then register on the Medical side.  The Finance guy can't see the Medical side.  I had the first two over before 7, my appointment time, and the second at 7:30, vs my 7:45 appointment.  Then I went up to the third floor to register at the doctor's office.  Wait some more and one tech takes me in, blood pressure, heart rate, weight; next a nurse goes over medical history, wait some more, and then finally Dr. Gundian shows. 

How many times did I answer the question "What is your birth date ?" -- that would be the number of people that I saw minus one; the Dr. didn't ask me my birth date.  Then again, he knows me.  He said that he was flattered that I followed him.  We joked about having this "relationship".  Ugh.

Three times in the last week I've had my blood pressure taken -- 110 over 60-something the first time, about the same the second time, and then 131 over something this time.  Does facing a digital rectal exam get my blood pressure up ?  Probably !  Perhaps it was simply two cups of coffee in the morning vs my normal one, but that had been hours ago; who knows.

Anyway, Gundian moved to Mayo not for more surgery, which is what I thought (he does/did robotic surgery), but to stop being on call.  He's now office-only, biopsies etc. but no surgery, so I guess that he'll quickly lose that accreditation / expertise since things change so rapidly, and his title is Consultant.  I don't know if that means that he's not actually an employee of Mayo; never got into that kind of discussion.

Since my PSA has held constant and nothing noticeable has changed with my prostate, he doesn't see a need for a biopsy.  That's good.  However, he did hold out the option of an MRI, which is a new procedure that apparently can pinpoint micro cancers before they get out of hand, much more likely to catch something than the 12 sample biopsy, which is fairly crude when we're talking about such small starter-cancers, so to speak.  I agreed that it might be a good idea and we may do that in six months.

So I asked him if it was less invasive ... and no, as he joked, it cannot be done "from the next room".  There's still something, ahem, shoved up your rectum, similar to the ultrasound when they do the biopsy, except that they don't actually take any samples.  A few days after the MRI they have the results and if something has been detected, they can then biopsy that area.  It doesn't sound like fun but it's probably the best followup.

So ... out of there and back home, with a 45 minute stuck-on-highway-behind-accident along the way.  I called Manatee Marine to say that I'd be home at 11 and they were here when I arrived.  Their two guys sunk the three new poles, in the rain no less.  The process pretty simple -- a water pump and a pipe.  Pump up that salty water, push the pipe into the ground (just a one inch pipe) with ejecting water creating a hole in the mud.  Press the pole into said hole and keep working around it with the pipe; hit it a few times with a sledge hammer to coax it down.  It took them all of a half-hour to do the job.

Now I have to pick up some long bolts to attach the under-structure to the poles and then I can fasten the deck boards down.

The rain having abated, we went out in the boat to the island.  It was really windy and rough and with a very high tide, not much of an island, but Cassie ran around like a fool, loving the island.  She's now got this boat-thing associated with the island down pat.

Back home, I proceeded to cut up some of the old boards that were piled on the dock and then move the entire mess to the street as this is garbage day.  That took a while.  Sandy went out for fish (we then had flounder for dinner), and I power washed the driveway -- more power-wash-blow the driveway -- getting all the cedar berries out too the street.  Cassie has been eating them and I'm sure that they're not good for her in quantity.

Another day was done.

Today, Sandy has a dermatologist appointment; I'm picking up me replacement hearing aid; I'll go to HD, if possible, to get bolts and I may, may, go fishing with Chet briefly this morning.  We'll see about the latter as we didn't touch base yesterday.

Onward !