Hello everyone,
First i would like to thank the people who have shown me encouragement and support from this site, you deffinatly have made me think in a differnt light.
I had my 1st 'TURBT' done on friday, i was the first on the list this time, i opted for the lumber puncture type of anesthetic as i had been told by other people who had had it done that recovery is so much faster and uncomplicated, which it was.
I was awake throughout and chatted with the anethertist the whole time about cars, motorbikes, motoGp, travel and the like, i could not see of feel anything below my navel and had no notion of what was taking place down below, it was cool.
I was wheeled to the recovery room wide awake with no problems of nausia, headache, or backpain, my ops were ok for the 1 hour you stay there, and then onto the ward, which was a ride through the bowles of the hospital, the op took just 40 mins, so by 10:00 i was in the ward fully aware of what was going on around me, but with no feeling below the waist, which felt very weird, sat up in the bed not feeling your own bum!, after the paperwork was done i was introduced to my nurse who would be looking after me, he was a lovely guy called jon, he took very nice care of me and explained everything he had to do, infact he worked so hard all the day long i felt quite sorry for him when he had to go home in the pooring rain on his bike.
Everything was fine, drinking much water, able to eat from lunch that day! without any nausia whatsoever, the night was ok got some sleep all that a busy ward can allow, watched the sun come up and started the days ablutions in the normal way only carrying a bag with me, a bit like hand luggage really! so no big deal and certainly nothing to be frightened about, in fact i would rather have that done than a filling at the dentist anyday. (one word of warning, i caught the catheter tap on the loo seat when standing up! thought my inards were coming out!!)
The worst part for me was following the removal of the catheter on saturday morning around 10:30, even having the catheter removed was not too bad, but what followed to enable me to be allowed home, not that i wanted to get home before time, was that i had to have 3 seperate pees in jugs which had to look right color wise, and have enough volumn to have emptied ones bladder completly, the first one went ok, a little painful but ok i could handle it, the second some 3 hours later was very painful, although i could just about keep my composure with some deep breaths, the last one of the three however was so painfull i passed out for a few seconds and had to sit on a chair, however i was then after an ultrasound allowed to go home, arriving at 18:15 so all in all a very quick and fairly painless experiance, no doubt i will have many more of these to endure, but now i have no worries about it at all, and can treat it as part of the total experiance and not somthing to dread.
I have peed a couple of times at home and sure it is painfull as hell, but hey nobody said it would be easy, so i have to grin and bear it.
I hope this will ally anyones fears of having this first operation in no doubt the many that will follow.
Intital chats with my doctor says that they removed the tumor ok, but found another one in the early stages, so they removed that one and some bladder wall for testing, i will get the results in 4 to 6 weeks time, which i am sure will seem like a life time of waiting.
My sincere thanks go to all the staff who tended me at Eastbourne DGH Sovereign ward, they are all lovely people who are in the right job and do it without question, somtimes not easy with some of the patients they have to deal with.
If you are still reading this epistle, thanks for sticking with it, sorry for the poor spelling and grammer, C'est la vie i am afraid. I hope my experiances help someone else come to terms with this common problem, and if i can answer any specific questions please get in touch, you wont offend me and i am not squeemish, so please ask away.
Have a nice weekend, and week ahead.
Pauli.....
