a wild 57 days

okay, I might share TMI so you might choose to speed read through some parts. July 1st, surgery, hospital, Cystoscopy July 20th, woke up with a stricture, 6am| full bladder | can't pee | oh shit! | I forced out the blockage, made it home from Boy Scout Camp. (I led a group of 23 scouts on our annual summer camp...it was fun all week) July 21, I cannot self catheter, off to the emergency room, catheter put in, MRSA infection caught July 31, catheter comes out Aug 4, stricture | emergency room again, in goes the catheter (okay men, if you're not hanging by the ceiling right now, you're doing good) Aug 4, travel to Dallas for QBR, leg bag attached, fun Aug 8, catheter removed Aug 15, Cystoscopy planned for in office, unable to get past the bladder neck, let's schedule surgery # 2 Aug 23, surgery, Cysto, walking again with my new friend the catheter and leg bag. (party on) Aug 26, removal of catheter....Blood pressure, 185/125..just a tad high Aug, start hypertension medication (isn't life a party? :)) Why so many problems? well, four yrs ago when I was diagnosed, I had radiation first (a lower dose) before my surgery. My Urologist said my bladder has damage from the radiation and my body (particularly at the bladder neck - exit point) is full of scar tissue and it continues to try and repair itself, causing more scar tissue. More scar tissue = blockage. Daily cath = 'trauma'. Trauma = blood clots. Blood clots = repairing. repairing leads to ? (another stricture?) What's next, daily catheter to try and keep my scar tissue from closing. only time will tell. In the meantime, work is a nice distraction. You know what, through it all, my mom said to me "I can't believe how positive you are" to which I said, it's just in my DNA I'm guessing if you made it this far, you've had enough details. Hope you all are well and you've had a great summer. until next time, cheers

2nd Cysto in the last 7 weeks

It's getting a little old...and the hospitals are getting rich. The word from my surgeon is the radiation I had 4 yrs ago had cause a good amount of damage to my bladder. No wonder I've had the issues I've had to deal with. It's still a lot less than the challenges other cancer patients face so I have to keep that in perspective. Follow up in 10 days to discuss long term options because I can't keep doing this every 60 days. Later

Emergency room, again

This,is getting a little old and more of an inconvenience. July 21 - stricture, emergency room, catheter July 24 - Urologist appmt, can't remove cath due to urinary track infection July 30 - Catheter comes out, begin self cath once daily Aug 4 - another stricture, emergency room, leave with catheter Depressing, frustrating, inconvenient. Off to Dallas for a few days, most likely back with urologist on Aug 8.