Big "C" - Final (standard:non fiction, 3276 words) [3/3] show all parts
Author: casio1933	Added: May 07 2008	Views/Reads: 2365/1781	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The last three chapters are combined here.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

spring. 

NEW POSSIBILITIES 

My Dad  was seeing Joe on a regular basis about every six  weeks or so
for checkups.  On one of these trips in early Spring,  Joe told Dad 
about a "relatively new procedure"  being  performed at some of the 
hospitals around  the  country.  He thought it might take care of the 
impotence.  "You're a young man, and I hear it works for some people.”  
He said,  "There's a doctor at  the University of Virginia Medical 
Center, I want  you  to  talk  to him,  if you're interested ‑ 
think about it  and  let  me know”. 

My Dad was much in the dumps.  He didn't think anybody could do him any
good.  However,  Joe's revelation didn't require much "thinking about 
it”.  Dad was ready to  talk to anyone he felt might help his situation 
‑ he told Joe to set  up an appointment. 

The  following week Dad drove to the University Medical Center for an
appointment with the  Chief of Urology.  Dr.  Howards explained there 
had been some recent developments in Urology,  by which the Urologist 
could implant a device in the penis.  This could help the patient 
achieve about an 80 percent erection.  This enabled most patients to 
engage in intercourse.  "There are two primary procedures,"  he 
explained,  "one includes the insertion of a type bladder inside the 
penis with a pump installed in the scrotum.  To achieve an erection, 
manipulation of  the  scrotum is all that's required."  That sounded 
damn good to Dad.  "Of course it is a mechanical  device and, as such, 
is subject to failure, the same as any other mechanical device."  Dr.  
Howards went on,  "You could have a malfunction with the pump, it could 
fail to pump up the bladder, and you couldn't achieve an erection.  On 
the other hand, it could fail  to bleed‑off and you couldn't lose 
the erection.  The movement of the bladder inside the penis could cause 
 irritation and possible rejection.  Any problem could result in 
additional surgery to repair or replace the device." 

The second procedure Dr.  Howards described included the insertion  two
silastic rods down the length of the penis from just inside the scrotum 
to just behind the glans.  With this procedure the patient would always 
maintain roughly 80 percent of a full erection.  While there would be 
none of the pressure associated with a natural  erection,  it could 
function nearly as well as a normal erection.  He assured Dad the wives 
he had talked  with,  whose husbands had this operation could not, in 
most  cases,   tell the difference. 

My Dad  liked what he had heard.  He went home and discussed  it with
Mom.  They both thought it would be more than something "nice" to bring 
back into their lives.  My Mom told Dad it would have to be his 
decision, since the procedures both entailed surgery and a painful 
recovery.  Dad said he would stand on  his  head  for a month or walk 
barefoot through fire to get that damn thing up again.  Dad called 
Dr.Howards at  the University early the next morning to set up an 
appointment for surgery.  They scheduled it for late June. 

When he went for the operation, Mom went with Dad.  Dr. Howards examined
Dad and asked which procedure he had decided on.  Dad told him, 
despite the drawbacks associated with the mechanics of the device and 
the risk of rejection or infection,  he had been around a bunch of 
engineers most of his life.  He did like the idea of being able to pump 
up his penis to a full erection any time he liked.  The major drawback 
was  getting together with a bunch of his buddies on a Friday night for 
a  few beers, getting to bragging about the damn thing, pumping it up 
and "blowing the head off.”  Dad opted for the static job. 

Dr.  Howards said they were experiencing a high level of success with
the static implant.  He thought it would be very satisfactory ‑ 
it was also a less complex procedure. 

No  one in either Dad's or Mom's family was told about the implant
surgery.  After cancer, anyone hears about a trip to the University 
Hospital and everybody is sure you're going up there to  have 
chemotherapy or radiation therapy or die.  They told a few close 
friends where they would be and, generally, what was going on -- 
corrective surgery. 

Frank had been told.  Dad  asked him to come down from Washington to be
with Mom while he  was in  surgery.  She had stopped eating and was 
losing weight again worrying about Dad going in for surgery again. 

At the hospital,  Dad got another one of those "close shaves" and  got
in line for the operating room.  That afternoon  he awakened enough to 
look at the agony between his legs.  It scared hell out of him.  His 
cock was swollen to the size of a beer can.  It looked ready to burst 
and was black as hen shit.  It looked horrible and hurt like hell.  If 
he thought it hurt after the prostate surgery, that pain was nothing 
compared with the way it now felt. 

Because Dad was a diabetic, the doctors wanted to keep him in the
hospital a few days with the catheter in place to closely monitor his 
sugar level and check for infection.  About every four hours a nurse 
would come in and pull a urine sample out of a disk on the catheter.  
They had not yet seen the "Black Monstrosity”.  Dad awakened from a 
drugged sleep to feel an all too familiar pressure ‑ the catheter 
was blocked.  Along with the other pain this was more than he could 
tolerate.  He  pressed the button for the nurse. 

"Yes,”  came the voice over the intercom, "what can we do for you?” 

Dad,  "I think the damned catheter is stopped‑up,  please send an 
orderly get it straightened out.” 

She told  him  someone would  be  right there.  In about thirty seconds
the door opened and in walked an angel.  Dad knew she couldn't be a day 
over eighteen and on a scale of one to ten a definite  fourteen ‑ 
she had come to work on the catheter. 

"I called  for an orderly," Dad said. 

She informed him she was a Registered Nurse and well qualified to
correct the problem with the catheter.  With those words,  she deftly 
flicked  the  sheet away,  gently lifted the swollen member, and 
removed the kink from the catheter.  Dad's relief was  immediate.  As  
she started out the door,  Dad murmured an embarrassed "Thank you”. 

"THANK YOU," she responded with a mischievous grin as she closed the
door. 

On the second day after surgery, the doctor told Dad he could plan on
going home the next day and doing  about anything  he felt like.  The 
doctor didn't think Dad would feel like doing  too much for a week or 
so. 

Dad responded, "I guess you don't expect me to use this thing before I
get home and you're  probably going to insist that I wait until I get 
out of the  hospital”. 

The Doctor didn't see the humor.  "You  damn  well better not use IT for
anything but taking a piss for the next month.  You could seriously 
hurt yourself."  Mom put things back in perspective with a laugh and 
the comment that she had  planned on catching Dad before the swelling 
went down. 

My Dad  was damned sore and he was talking a hell of a lot friskier than
he felt.  When it came time to leave the hospital for the trip home he 
had to sit with one leg on a  pillow shared with the "Black 
Monstrosity”.  Once home he didn't feel all that much like moving 
around.  The first couple of days he tried to back‑off the 
painkillers with some success.  There were times when he wished he 
hadn't tried. 

The Doctors have a tendency to down‑play the pain associated with
this type of surgery.  This is probably because they think  there's  a 
potential for an individual electing not  to  have surgery, if he 
thought only of the pain associated with the  procedure.  In retrospect 
Dad thinks it was well worth it.  Fortunately, the human mind cannot 
remember pain itself, only that they had pain.  If Dad lost his 
long-standing  erection  today,  he would be even more eager for a 
replacement (they're using platinum rods today) than he was before he 
knew about the pain. 

I  don't know exactly how long it was before Mom and Dad  got it on
again after the implant surgery.  You can bet your ass it wasn't a 
month.  The swelling had about dissipated after a week or so.  Dad said 
the rebuilt tool was everything the  Doctor had said it would be 
‑ and a whole lot more besides.  "The damn thing is unreal," he 
would say.  Dad managed  to restrain himself and not overburden the 
still  black and blue organ for the first month.  After that,  he and 
Mom were like kids with a new toy.  They were a lot like they were on a 
honeymoon,  but a lot more comfortable and  engaged in a lot more 
mutually enjoyable screwing. 

It was only now Mom and Dad began to realize,  within the  short  time
of only one  year they had experienced  a  life time  of deepest 
despair and  the return to a level of  happiness far greater than they 
could ever have normally  expected  or even hoped for.  Dad says when 
he's eighty years old, sitting around with his old buddies, who are 
still trying to  remember what it was they used to do with those girls 
when they caught them,  he and Mom will still be "doing IT”.  That 
operation has been one hell of an ego trip for him ‑ 
"unbelievable”,  is the only word that comes close to  describing  his  
feelings.  "So,  it's only a prosthetic device.”  One  might say.  Dad 
says, "Yeah ‑ my climax is more intense than it has ever been.  
Sex is more enjoyable that it has ever been and I perform a hell of a 
lot better than I ever did  before."  There's  only  one problem 
‑ if she's feeling horny  and I'm not, I can't claim that I can't 
get it up because of a headache." 

A few months after the implant surgery, Dad was scheduled for his
regular physical with Max.  When the examination, including a close 
scrutiny of Mom and Dad's new toy,  was  complete and Max had started 
for the door,  he turned to Dad (still  stretched  naked  on  his back  
on  the  examination  table),  "That's the damnedest thing I've ever 
seen in my  life, I've never seen anything like it”.  He said as he 
stepped from the  room.  Max had a lot of questions that day, 
including: 

"What do you do with it when you're walking around?" 

Dad, "I don't have that much of a problem.  It's there, and it's obvious
that something is.  I usually carry my  key ring or a twist of tobacco 
in the pocket on that  side.  I can't wear jockey shorts or tennis 
shorts (He looked like the cartoon explanation of why Hillbillies 
couldn't wear Bermuda shorts).  I haven't been able to find a bathing 
suit I  could wear in public without being arrested.”  I usually just 
wear a pair of cutoff Levis when I go swimming.  All that's a small 
price to pay and my wife seems to be happy with it. 

Later that week Dad went to see Joe for the first checkup after the
implant surgery.  He told Dad everything seemed to be great (no pun 
intended).  There was no indication that he had not gotten all the 
cancer.  He asked Dad how his bladder control was since the implant 
surgery.  Dad told him he only leaked a couple of drops sometimes when 
he sneezed. 

“Hell,” Mom had been doing that for years. 

For  a long time Dad has heard doctors who say that  prostate cancer had
very little effect a man's sex life.  He has never heard one tell it 
like it really is.  Even Joe,  right  from  the beginning, didn't tell 
it like it was. 

When Dad went to see Joe for his three-year checkup after the prostate
surgery, Joe gave him a more thorough than usual and much  more painful 
examination,  (Dad told him he better not catch him with both hands on 
his shoulders).  "Well," he said after the examination,  "I guess I can 
tell you now, seriously, you are doing fine,  ‑ most men your age 
who have had prostate  cancer  don't  make it for three years.  After 
this length of time,  I don't think you've got anything at all to worry 
about."  Dad told  Joe he was damn glad he had waited three years to  
tell him that. 

While,  shortly after the prostate surgery,  Dad was somewhat reluctant
to talk about his operations, he later thought that his discussing  it 
may help someone else.  "The  point is catching  it soon enough.  That 
is where so many men  neglect themselves.  They don't get thorough 
prostate exams, and that is why so many more men die of prostate cancer 
than women  do from uterine cancer ‑ the women get the exams in 
time for early detection. 

Because  of the sexual aspects  associated  with prostate cancer, 
people (including doctors) don't talk about it that much.  Mom and Dad 
were very much that way. They were, in some unexplainable way, ashamed 
I guess and didn't want to  advertise the fact.  Some friends who found 
out Dad had undergone prostate surgery gave them sympathetic looks.  A 
few had enough guts to, pointedly, ask questions, mostly about what it 
had done to their sex life.”  My Mom also got a few passes along the 
way. 

I've  tried  to record things here as My Dad remembered them, the pain,
the anguish, the frustration and,  yes,  the joy  in knowing that no 
matter how bad things get,  they  can get better than they were before. 
All in all it was one hell of a character building experience. 

After his recovery, Dad's whole outlook on life changed.  He has  a much
revised set of priorities.  Things that used to really upset ("godamned 
motherfucker" kind of  upset)  him,  don't rattle his cage at all 
anymore.  He now laughs at most of them. 

My Dad is over seventy now ‑ a hell of a lot of his life is 
behind him.  He has not done a lot of the things he'd planned to do 
when he was younger.  He looks at life more  objectively now and can't 
think of many things he would have done differently.  He  may look back 
at his life and say,  "God damn,  I wish I had not done this or that”.  
He won't look back and say, "I wish I had done 
‑‑‑‑‑“.  "Happiness" is his only true   
measure of success.  He attributes his greatest success to his Bride of 
almost fifty years.  (He still opens  doors  for her).


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