[charlesbahn]

Cancer? I know you're thinking, "has this long time pelican finally dived to deep?" Let me back up a little.

About a month ago, I developed side pain and blood in my urine. Started just like the kidney stone I had 20 yrs ago. But this time the pain didn't progress to extreme and I saw my internist who had me see a urologist- I had a stone protocol CT, chest x-ray with rib views, and then an IVP CT scan. None showed a stone, also fortunately, none showed kidney cancer, another possibility.

The pain gradually improved and went away, but my urologist was still concerned about the blood in the urine, so recommended a view into the bladder through the penis (OUCH! -cystoscopy)) under anesthesia.

I'm a wimp, but agreed. When I woke-up, it was bad news. There were some small stones in the bladder that probably caused the pain. There was also a tumor on the inside surface of the bladder. My urologist said that he destroyed the tumor by burning it after taking a biopsy- he also did a "deep" biopsy to see if the tumor had invaded the bladder wall (bad).

That was Monday. It's been a really tough week. I had a catheter until Wednesday that hurt like hell. I also did some reading- if the deep biopsy was positive I'd have to make some major life style decisions- major surgery (remove the bladder, prostate) wear a bag to pee in, no sex-- or opt for minimal care and have a good 5 years or so and die. I was prepared to except the latter.

So I just got off the phone with the urologist. Yes, I have cancer. But the deep biopsy was negative. So I have cancer- but its almost the best you can have and the prognosis is good.

I do have to have another cystoscopy (tube up the penis- OUCH! I hope they have one long enough!) in about 3 months and then regularly for life (they say it gets easier).

So I dodged the big one for now. This combined with the fact that my wife, the love of my life, had a melanoma (bad-bad skin cancer) on her butt which was 0.8 mm deep (not the dreaded 1.0 mm deep that requires deep lymph node dissection and probable chemo and very poor prognosis.........

So the glass is half full my friends.................. I think we're going to buy that F car we've been eyeing.........