There seems to be some indication that King Charles has already been in the hospital for his “procedure” for an enlarged prostate. I thought it was supposed to happen early this week, then they said it would be happening on Wednesday? I don’t know, but perhaps the palace will issue a statement in due time. For now, royal sources are still pushing back on any talk of Charles “slowing down.” Someone told the Telegraph that he will be “back up and running” after a temporary period of “enforced rest” and he will be “raring to go once he’s had a short period of recuperation.” Still, other royal sources told the Daily Beast that the mood in Buckingham Palace is “subdued.” Perhaps even grim.

The mood at Buckingham Palace has been “subdued” ahead of King Charles’ admission to hospital this week, according to one insider, with a friend of the king’s adding that his treatment for an enlarged prostate has come as an “unwelcome reminder” of the king’s advanced age, and the inevitably short duration of his reign compared to that of his mother.

A former courtier who remains in contact with old colleagues told The Daily Beast: “The mood at the palace is, unsurprisingly, subdued. The enlargement of the prostate may be benign, but treatment isn’t a small thing. The king could be off games [out of action] for a month or so.”

The palace, of course, have sought to play down the impact of the hospitalization on the king, with sources telling the Daily Telegraph and the Sun that the king will be “raring to go” after the procedure and working from home while recuperating. However, the reality is that the longer Charles is absent from public-facing duties, the more calls he will face to accept a wholesale change in pace.

One longstanding friend of the family told The Daily Beast: “Charles is an older man. He was 73 when his mother died, so even if he lives to 100 he is not even close to half of his mother’s reign [70 years]. I’m afraid the prostate problems are an unwelcome reminder of those simple facts.”

The new king has spent the 16 months since Queen Elizabeth’s death in a frenzied blur of activity. Charles, often described as a workaholic by his family, undertook 516 public engagements last year, including 94 abroad.

Charles will have no choice but to take his foot off the pedal in the short term, of course. The fact that the king is going in for a procedure, rather than using medication such as inhibitor drugs, which can shrink the prostate within a few weeks, suggests that he might be opting for a treatment such as transurethral needle ablation (which was recently approved by the NHS in the U.K.) or laser therapy. While the bulk of recovery in such cases can often take just a few days to a week, it can take several weeks to fully recover and notice improvement in symptoms.

[From The Daily Beast]

Once we learned more about how common these prostate procedures are, I kind of understood why the palace was downplaying it. I believe Charles will be fine, although I believe they’re overestimating how soon Charles will be back at work and “raring to go.” He is still a 75 year old man. The larger problem for the palace is that with William and Kate hitting pause on their schedule, it really is just Queen Camilla out there as the face of the monarchy.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.