A Visit From Melchior
To the hospital yesterday to have three gold seeds inserted into my prostate; these will be the focus for the radiotherapy when it starts in late January.
If you are reading this because you have been searching for information on the procedure, I can tell you that it was quick (less than 5 minutes) and nothing at all like the experience of the biopsy. There was definitely an uncomfortable sensation but not what I would call painful. The longest part was sitting around in the waiting room beforehand. Afterwards, I was quite able to walk the fabled 10,000 steps before coming home for a cup of tea with my feet up.
More broadly, the only real side effect I’ve had of the hormone implant is that my weight has been creeping up. I am still in the same 30″ waist jeans but there has definitely been weight added around my tummy – possibly because of fluid retention. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to lose it again once the course of treatment is over which means late spring.
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Looking for a title for this post, my first thought was Eliot’s Journey of the Magi and I fell into a rabbit hole of assorted actors reading the poem on YouTube. It was an interesting exercise in changing styles over the years, especially the final line which is often read as fatalistic as if by a weary narrator; I think the meaning is sharper than that and is to do with the turning of the religious tides, the death of the old and (implicitly) the birth of the new. Anyway, of all the readings, including a recording of Eliot himself reading it, I thought the best was by Alec Guinness. I also enjoyed Malcolm Guite’s spirited reading which ties the poem to Eliot’s sources, and Tim Martin’s more dramatised reading.
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