So where was I? Oh yes, in hospital with a catherter and it's still Tuesday and just a couple of hours after being told that I had this growth in my bladder. The plan had now been made for the short term actions. Today was all about flushing out my bladder to remove blood clots etc then tomorrow would be about giving me 2 units of blood to do something about my anaemia which had been down to a count of 7 but was now up to 8.5 following a week of iron tablets. Then Thursday I would be squeezed in for surgery as an emergency so that they could take a good look at the growth and cut as much out as they could.
Seemed quite a simple plan but I was nervous. I already hated the catherter (just not natural!!) and as I had never had an operation before I was worried about the an anesthetic. No, not the operation itself just the anesthetic. The thought of "loosing control" was the issue at hand. I had visions of panic setting in as I was being put under. S**t, I have to admit to being a bit scared. OK, lets review that, I'm in a hospital bed with bladder cancer and I'm worried about the anesthetic but not really anything else! Displacement or just me being strange... :-)
So, it was on the third day of my hospital stay that I was "going down" for my op. As an emergency case I didn't have a time but it could be anytime after 1pm so nil by mouth started straight after an early (5.30am) light breakfast.
Twiddle fingers for ages....
Late, late pm I finally went down for the op. Amazingly mad senior anesthetist had me laughing as I fell asleep and one second later I woke up to find that it was all over. And.. yep I was still on a high from whatever they had given me :-)
"If that's what it's like I'll have an operation every day" I tell my wonderful T and my son Phil as I'm brought back to the ward. God I'm hungry I thought and within twenty minutes I'm eating a three course meal including a wonderful curry!
I then slept, and woke up later feeling normal again. Wow, what a rollercoaster!
My fav doc, Paul, soon came to see me to say that they had cut away the growth in my bladder but that it was big and had spread into the bladder wall. Not unexpected but still pooh information. Tomorrow I would have a scan to see if the cancer had spread anywhere else, they would need to wait for the results from histology once they had tested the "chippings" they had extracted but most likely they would recommend a course of chemo followed by an op to remove the bladder and the prostate.
When can I go home? Well, we need to wait until your urine is clear then we can decide so it will be a couple of days probably...
So it was back to continuous food and drink being delivered to my bedside, the joy of the morning shower, a rota of visitors during the afternoon and evenings and old editions of Top Gear on the Dave channel...
Will talk about the scan results and the "bladder urine retention battle" soon. :-) Now off to the hospital to see the renal specialist today, bum, no change for the car park.
Thanks for reading this, it certainly helps to write it!!
A xx
