Alligatorob's Diary

[Petal001]

Hi Rob I can’t add much more to all of the above. Can you imagine how more difficult surgery would be without your weight loss so you are miles ahead than you would have been . You are very healthy and will bounce back quickly and I imagine you can do some walks while recovering. I think it’s great you are speaking out about it too

 

[Emilyrose]

Sorry to hear you are down. Surgery is not a pleasant thing to go through, but I’m sure you’ll sail through it. You’ve overcome being 100 pounds overweight! For this one, you just have to go to sleep and someone else will fix the problem. You’ll be fine.

 

[alligatorob]

Yesterday was a good day, I ate well and feel good. My exercise was picking about 150 lbs of tomatoes and 30 lbs of peppers, and starting the big sauce making process. Saturday afternoon the farmer who works the field next door told me that he was done with the tomatoes and peppers and that I should take all I wanted, so I did. I also found about 15 peaches, I am amazed I can still find them in October. I believe these are truly the end, but I put them in the fridge and will be eating them for a few more days. I don't think I have ever gotten peaches into October before, an amazing season for what was a bad one for the farmer, I have eaten fresh peaches almost every day now for 2 months.

Yesterday's haul, most of it anyway.

Starting to boil.

Rob, there is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. I am very glad that it is benign & should be easily treated. It's a blip in life. G had 2 tumours in his prostate, one of them was very aggressive & had a radical prostatectomy. It rocked us both for 6 at the time. You will find that prostate problems vary a lot, but are way more common than you realise. I am really relieved for your sake that it is what it is. You should not have the side issues he has. He is still very active-cutting wood, playing golf etc. You are coming from a position of probably being the fittest & healthiest you have been for many years & that will definitely help you recover quickly.

Thanks Cate, it helps to know others have had the same or worse and gotten through it fine. I know my condition is the least worst prostate problem that requires surgery, most are worse. After reading your post I looked it up and found that 50 to 70% of men my age have BPH or worse prostate problems, but mostly it goes untreated. If not for the infection mine might have.

Sorry to hear about your upcoming surgery Rob, wishing you a speedy recovery...

Thanks Err, I hope its speedy as well, but have been told to expect it to take at least a month.

Hi Rob,
Sorry you are feeling down and stressed. I hope the surgery goes well and that you recover quickly. Good for you doing good healthy things for your body and mind--working in the yard always helps my stress levels. I will be keeping you in my thoughts.

Thanks Liza, the tomato work yesterday helped, as have y'all's posts. I am not too stressed about it now.

What Cate said. And kudos to you for a) getting your medical checkups regularly and b) talking about it even though you feel embarrassed. Sadly a lot of men don't do either and it's so harmful both physically and mentally. You're not lesser for working on your problems, anything but

Thanks LaMa, and I probably would not have done anything about it either had it not been for the infection. However when I had the internal examination the doctor had the pictures on the screen and he showed me how it has caused my bladder muscles to strain and deform, all the more reason to get something done.

Hi Rob I can’t add much more to all of the above. Can you imagine how more difficult surgery would be without your weight loss so you are miles ahead than you would have been . You are very healthy and will bounce back quickly and I imagine you can do some walks while recovering. I think it’s great you are speaking out about it too

Petal, you are right of course (as always!). I am much better able to go into surgery now than I would have been last year. And I will ask how soon I can walk, it will probably be sooner than a return to the gym.

Sorry to hear you are down. Surgery is not a pleasant thing to go through, but I’m sure you’ll sail through it. You’ve overcome being 100 pounds overweight! For this one, you just have to go to sleep and someone else will fix the problem. You’ll be fine.

Thanks Emily, sailing through would be nice.

 

[Llama]

That's a beautiful harvest!

 

[liza]

Man that haul looks amazing--how handy to live next door to a farmer!
Very happy to hear you are feeling less stressed--always good to share our worries--it somehow seems to lighten the load.

 

[Cate]

All that produce- wow! You must have a very healthy pantry.

 

[Emilyrose]

Mouth-watering stuff. It looks absolutely amazing. I can see the nutrients! This food = good!

 

[alligatorob]

It was a good day, I ate well, exercised and feel good tonight. Did 2 hours and 10 minutes at the gym today and I feel good. I will try to do a similar thing at the gym tomorrow and Wednesday before the surgery. Then a long rest I guess. Still boiling the tomato sauce down. I think we will end up with about 25 liters when all done. We did give some of the tomatoes away, got tired of cutting and ran out of pots...

That's a beautiful harvest!

Thanks LaMa, it was.

Man that haul looks amazing--how handy to live next door to a farmer!

We are lucky, this is an area that was mostly agricultural 10 or 15 years ago, but is all to rapidly becoming suburbia. We have only small isolated patches of farm left. There is a farmer who works most of the remaining plots, he doesn't own them its a kind of rent thing. He takes care of our peaches and the tomatoes next door, so we know that guy pretty well. We also know the landowner, got permission from both for the picking.

All that produce- wow! You must have a very healthy pantry.

Well we do have a lot to tomato sauce!

Mouth-watering stuff. It looks absolutely amazing. I can see the nutrients! This food = good!

Thanks Emily, it is good.

 

[Petal001]

Good work on making all that sauce . Do you freeze it Rob . If not do you add preservatives . I suppose airtight jars work well too .

well done on getting the gym in , the few weeks will fly past for you

 

[Llama]

It's scary how much food-growing space gets converted to lawn - or even gravel "gardens".

 

[Lingwo]

Amazing progress. Best of luck with the surgery - I know a month off seems long, but it could be a blessing to let your body and muscles recover. Hopefully you can continue to post, and keep your nutrition tight during recovery.

 

[alligatorob]

Yesterday was a day of poking, prodding, bleeding and testing, pre-op stuff. All seemed ok, so unless the blood or Covid tests come back with a surprise I'll be in surgery tomorrow. I had planned to go to the gym, but after doing the Covid test they put me on quarantine, so no more gym for a while. Since we have no real quarantine rules I am not really sure what I should and should not do, but I did ask about the gym and was told no. I think it makes sense they want to be really sure I don't go into the hospital with Covid, and I sure don't want to put the sick people there at risk. I ate fine yesterday but beginning tonight I will be fasting so food will be disrupted for a while, should be back to normal eating in a few days.

Should be able to finish up the tomato sauce today, one of my pre-op goals. We have 16 liters done and in jars, I think my projection of 25 liters will be pretty close to where we end up. That is boiled down from about 75 liters of mash. I also need to mow the lawn, guess that will be my post-op exercise for the day.

Good work on making all that sauce . Do you freeze it Rob . If not do you add preservatives . I suppose airtight jars work well too .

I have always frozen before, but this time its going into the air tight jars. I don't really know how to do that, but the wife does.

It's scary how much food-growing space gets converted to lawn - or even gravel "gardens".

Yes, it is. Here in Utah its about water too, more and more of our water is going to irrigate lawns and landscaping, less to food. We have a lot more land here than water. I have some lawn and landscaping as well, but try to grow fruit trees or something I eat where I can.

Amazing progress. Best of luck with the surgery - I know a month off seems long, but it could be a blessing to let your body and muscles recover. Hopefully you can continue to post, and keep your nutrition tight during recovery.

Hey Lingwo, good to see you here. Thanks for the nice words, and I do plan to continue posting, and eating right. We'll see what I can do for exercise, but even if it is nothing for a while I think I will be ok.

 

[Llama]

Best of luck for your surgery my friend.

 

[Emilyrose]

Rob, I really hope your surgery goes great tomorrow and you're back here posting soon. Knowing you, you'll come back saying you feel 20 years younger!

 

[Cate]

All the best with your surgery, Rob. You'll be fine

 

[Err2]

Good luck Rob

 

[alligatorob]

Today was a good day, ate lighter and will not have a evening snack because of the surgery. The only exercise I got was mowing the lawn and a few yard and garden things done in anticipation of not being able to for a little while. Surgery is very early tomorrow morning, 6 am, so I will be up and out very early, may not be able to post for a couple of days. If y'all never hear from me again you'll know why, just joking, LOL, I am feeling optimistic.

Finished up the tomato processing today and found that I had miscounted, we now have 39 liters of tomatoes, some frozen, some in heated air tight jars. That comes from about 150 lbs of tomatoes, 30 pounds of peppers, and 30 pounds of onions boiled down. 39 liters would weigh about 80 pounds, so it is concentrated about 3 to 1. It's a mix of just tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, Rob's special extra hot tomato sauce, and salsa. We already had about 10 liters in the freezer, so now there will be lots of tomato sauce to eat and give away through out the winter and spring. Felt good to get it done pre-surgery! My wife did the canning in jars, I did the freezing, I did most of the picking and cutting things up and putting into pots, we both watched and worked the pots, in separate kitchens, my wife got the main kitchen, me the kitchenette in my office. My wife did the 5 liters of salsa. I cleaned up my kitchen mess and she her's. Worked out in the end.

Best of luck for your surgery my friend.

Thanks, I appreciate your support. I think it will go fine.

Rob, I really hope your surgery goes great tomorrow and you're back here posting soon. Knowing you, you'll come back saying you feel 20 years younger!

Thanks, do you think it could be as good getting the Covid virus?

All the best with your surgery, Rob. You'll be fine

I think so, now that I have told a few folks and word is out I am hearing from a lot of men who have had similar surgeries. Most went fine, only one did not and he had a lot more problems going in than I do. So between what you told me and that I am feeling more positive about it.

Good luck Rob

Thanks Err, hopefully I don't need luck, but it can't hurt!

 

[Petal001]

Probably a bit late but in case you read before you go hope all goes well Rob

 

[alligatorob]

Probably a bit late but in case you read before you go hope all goes well Rob

Thanks Petal, and not too late, I leave in a few minutes.

 

[Petal001]

Hoping it’s all over soon and you bonce back quick x