One of life's little surprises

Early last August I noticed a few drops of blood in my urine one morning. Not only did that little spot of pink wake me up, it made me most vigilant. When the blood continued to appear for a few days...not much, just a little pink tinge at the end...I called my doctor and made an appointment. She first treated me for a urinary infection (there was one present), and, when  the infection went away but the blood didn't, then she sent me to a urologist. Well, to make a long story short (and to avoid talking a lot about medical procedures--something I have little patience with when others do it) he found a couple small tumors in my bladder, and told me they had to come out. But, he added, not to worry because 80% of these tumors are the low grade type which are easily cured. Well, tra-la, my little cancers were of the 20% high grade variety which are not easily cured.

The cancer was formally diagnosed mid-October. I had my first trans-urethral bladder resection October 27th. It was when the pathology lab looked at the specimens from that operation that they determined that my cancer was of the high grade variety. That necessitated a second bladder resection which was done on November 17th. It was after that surgery that it was determined that the cancer had "invaded" the bladder's muscle tissue. This, I am told, is Not Good. So, "Not Good", in fact, that my urologist informed me that we needed to talk about complete removal of the bladder. Complete removal! All because there was one little speck of cancer on one small muscle tissue sample. I was devastated.

I should mention that, especially in males, complete bladder removal also means complete prostate removal. Removal of the prostate means the surgeon is messing around where the nerves that govern male sexual arousal are located. In the large majority of bladder removals, the ability to engage in sexual intercourse is also removed. Now, while sex is not absolutely necessary for my wife's and my ongoing relationship, it does add to it. And I am not ready to let that part of my life go yet, so I/we began to look for alternatives.