The Ins And Outs Of A Prostate Biopsy....No Pun Intended

I was planning on writing a blog entry about all of the information about a Prostate Biopsy that I obtained from my Urologist.
My Urologist gave me a pamphlet explaining the Prostate Biopsy procedure, so I figured that it would be easier just to put the whole pamphlet into my blog entry.
Additional information and clarification of the ins and outs of this procedure are as follows:
You can eat a light breakfast or lunch before and after the procedure.
You will need to use a Fleet enema a couple of hours before the procedure.
Antibiotics will most likely be prescribed to you and should be taken from a day or two prior to the procedure through a day or two after the procedure.
My Urologist does not prescribe anything before the procedure to relax you nor will he give me anything like the type of anesthesia that I had for my colonoscopy. I was given something intravenously that for the most part allowed me to sleep through that procedure and I could not remember a thing when it was over with.
My Urologist is willing to do general anesthesia but I would have to be in the hospital to have that done and he felt that there was no need for me to do that.
My Urologist does not prescribe anything for pain after the procedure either. He told me that whatever pain and discomfort that I might have after the procedure, should normally only last a couple of days. Each person is different as to the lingering effects of the procedure and each Urologist is different as far as what medication is given. There are some Urologist out there that might be willing to put you close to a general anesthesia..what I would call conscious sedation but you will have to go searching for these doctors
Luckily I have some leftover relaxation pills and some leftover pain medication from previous assorted medical issues, that I should be all set should I need any of them.
The only other thing that I should mention is that the probe that is inserted approximately 4 inches into the rectum has the capacity to deliver the local anesthesia where it is needed and that the probe takes 12 samples via small biopsy needles.
6 samples are taken on each side of the prostate and they are usually taken where prostate cancer is most likely found on the prostate, if there is any cancer there.
Unfortunately because the biopsy samples are only taken from a rather small portion of the prostate compared to the overall size of the prostate, that there is always a chance that the biopsy needles could totally miss a cancerous area, if there is one on the prostate.
This whole type procedure is not an exact science to say the least but unfortunately it is the best that is available at this time.
Here is the pamphlet. You can click on the picture to get it larger for easier reading:

New Camera Testing And Medical Update

This morning Veronica and I headed to the Virginia Beach area.
After making a few shopping stops along the way, we went to my new Urologist office.
I call him my new Urologist but actually I had paid him a visit several years ago, when we lived in the Virginia Beach area. It was during that first visit that he suggested that I have a Prostate Biopsy done. Because it wasn't something that I really wanted to hear, I waved off his suggestion without a 2nd thought and went along my merry way.
Now it seems that I have come a complete circle and I was back visiting him again but this time I was ready and as willing as I could muster up to be, to get a Prostate Biopsy done on myself.
I got all of the info as to how this procedure will be done, what I need to do before the procedure, what I need to do after the procedure and what to look out for as far as potential problems stemming from having the procedure done.
The only thing that I didn't get was an appointment to have the procedure done. I am awaiting a call from the doctors secretary to set up a date and time to get this procedure completed.
Because there might be other males out there that might need to go this very same procedure done, I will be providing rather detailed information about this procedure and what the doctor told me.
Some of this information is rather embarrassing but I think that others might want to know what to expect...the good...the bad and the ugly.
I will provide all of the details in a future blog entry.
Right now though, I want to move onto something that is more fun and interesting.
As you might now, I just recently received my new Sony Cyber-Shot DSC- HX100V.
Now for a little background information...for the last couple of months or so, we have been dealing with a lot of smoke that is coming from the Pains Bay Fire in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, near Stumpy Point, NC.
The smoke gets really bad around here especially when we get Southerly winds.
Recently we have received air quality health alerts from the National Weather Service out of Newport, NC. Some of these air health alerts have been of the code red variety...the worse you can get.
This afternoon we were/are under one of those code red air quality health alerts.
This poor air quality really effects ones respiratory system. My chest feels like I have a chest cold, my throat is sore and scratchy, the glands in my neck swell up and it hurts to swallow.
I decided that since it was so smoky outside and because I have a new camera to test out, why not combine both newsworthy stories into one blog entry....and people say I am not an efficient person. I got all you haters on this one...lol.
I decided to take some still photos using this new camera. I left the setting on what they call the "Superior Auto" setting. This setting allows the camera to choose the best scene selection and all of the other photo settings in order to produce the best photograph.
Here are some of the smoky photos that I took around our residence:

You can get a rough idea as to how smoky it is around here. These were taken at around 7PM local time

Here are my first attempts at taking a Panoramic photograph using this new camera. You can choose to scan left to right, right to left, bottom to top or top to bottom. I am impressed with the ease of use and the quality of the photos taken by this camera.

 It is really going to be great using this Panorama feature when we do some traveling

 

  

And lastly...here are a few videos that I took. They have 3 setting options as far as the quality that you want your video to be shown in. The better the quality, the bigger the file. For blogging purposes, I used to lowest setting, which has less detail and a lower quality than the highest HD setting. Of course you would need to view these videos on a HD television in order to get the full benefit of highest quality setting.

 

 

So far I give this camera 2 thumbs up. It has tons of features and is a very high quality camera. And I have hardly touched the surface as far as what this camera is capable of.

The New Camera Has Arrived!!!

Our new Sony Cyber Shot DSC-HX100V camera arrived here today via FedEx. I wasn't expecting this little beauty to arrive until tomorrow.
After getting into the box and firing this camera up, the best way to describe my first impression of this camera is that it is SWEEEEEET.
It has tons of bells and whistles in it and I am looking forward to giving her a test drive but that will have to wait until after I get a chance to review the manual and play with the settings a bit.
Veronica and I are going to Orlando in a couple of weeks and that will be the time when I will put the pedal to the metal and see what this baby will do.
This camera has almost twice the megapixels as our old one, full HD 1080P video recording mode, records video in 3D for those who have 3D televisions or will in the future and the Panarama mode looks really cool. You can choose how to pan..left to right, right to left, bottom to top and top to bottom. It also has a couple of fully auto settings where the camera will decide which scene mode works best for the photographic subject  matter. It also has a 30x optical Zoom...which is an important item for me.
Here are a few photos of our new camera as it just came out of the box. Also...for those of you that are in the market for a new camera, here is a review of the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-HX100V