Thursday, July 24, 2008
Back And Feeling A Bit Better
My visit to the UVA Medical Center was somewhat eventful today. For the first time since I was diagnosed I was able to go to a hospital for treatment without ending up admitted for the night. So that much is good, anyway.
I'm trying to decide how much of the most recent events I want to blog about. Some of it is wince-inducing ... and other elements are sensitive for other reasons. But, anyway, I'm back home with a new catheter that I'll have to have for two weeks. Hopefully, my bladder will actually do some healing during that time.
OK, here's a compromise: I'll write the wince-inducing details here in a white font, which you'll have to highlight with your curser to read. So if you want to know gory details, start highlighting here: I mentioned in my post on Sunday the 13th that having my catheter changed was extremely painful. Well, today I found out why. The very end of my urethra was abnormally narrow. It had a stricture due to the trauma of my recent surgeries. It wasn't that my entire urethra was too narrow, just the very end of it. The resident who put the catheter in during my last hospital stay was either too stupid or too indifferent to do anything about it, so he just shoved the catheter in and it hurt like hell. Today my urologist decided that the narrow opening of my urethra had to be corrected, so she corrected it. With a pair of medical scissors. That's right, one quick snip and I no longer had a stricture that caused an abnormal narrowing at the end of my urethra. They didn't tell me what they were going to do before they did it ... probably because they realized that if I'd known what they were planning to do I'd have jumped up and started throwing punches at everyone present. But the procedure was done, the catheter was inserted, and I'm alive and at home. Whew.
So, yeah, I survived that ... although thinking about it makes me sweat, tremble and cry. And hopefully it'll never have to be done again.
Labels: Bladder Cancer, Personal
Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 17:04 
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I hope you don't mind, but I'm too much of a wuss to highlight.. I cringe when coffeesister is watching "House".
Welcome back, and start getting better now, dammit.
Welcome back, and start getting better now, dammit.
I'm not too much of a wuss to highlight. Mazeltov!
So, a Southern Conservative with a narrow urethra...throw in propane and propane accessories and you're officially Hank Hill. ;)
Skip the next paragraph for those who don't like gory detail:
I remember my first endoscopy when I had my problem a few years ago. The doc told me what he was going to do, then started working the tube into my nose and down my throat. It didn't get far before I decided "I DON'T LIKE THIS" and in a surge of surprise adrenaline given my weakened low blood state, I grabbed the thing and yanked it out. The doctor was stunned; no one had ever done that before, and he cautioned me that I could have torn my esophagus or worse. They restrained me better the 2nd time, but I knew what to expect. The worst was the days after the surgery when I had to have a nasogastric tube in for three days continually siphoning the contents of my stomach because nothing could go in my intestines until the resectioning was fully healed. I remember having a catheter in for a day or two, but between not being able to eat, the tube down my nose and throat, and the 20 staples holding my abdomen in and keeping my guts from spilling out, I was pretty distracted.
Anyway, good for you for getting through that and good for the docs for making it quick. Here's hoping you're done getting cut.
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So, a Southern Conservative with a narrow urethra...throw in propane and propane accessories and you're officially Hank Hill. ;)
Skip the next paragraph for those who don't like gory detail:
I remember my first endoscopy when I had my problem a few years ago. The doc told me what he was going to do, then started working the tube into my nose and down my throat. It didn't get far before I decided "I DON'T LIKE THIS" and in a surge of surprise adrenaline given my weakened low blood state, I grabbed the thing and yanked it out. The doctor was stunned; no one had ever done that before, and he cautioned me that I could have torn my esophagus or worse. They restrained me better the 2nd time, but I knew what to expect. The worst was the days after the surgery when I had to have a nasogastric tube in for three days continually siphoning the contents of my stomach because nothing could go in my intestines until the resectioning was fully healed. I remember having a catheter in for a day or two, but between not being able to eat, the tube down my nose and throat, and the 20 staples holding my abdomen in and keeping my guts from spilling out, I was pretty distracted.
Anyway, good for you for getting through that and good for the docs for making it quick. Here's hoping you're done getting cut.
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