My inital appointment was with my general practitioner, with the everso typical phrase of course - "here we need a sample". The sample was tested at the office and the doctor came in and said that he was sending me to the Urologist - immediately - an appointment was made by his off for 20 mins later - the Doctor walked me out of his exam room by the check-out area and directly to the waiting room leading to the exit.

Abt 30 minutes later (thanks to traffic) I was in the urologist office - answering the same questions as in the GP's office and once again - handed another cup for a sample.

After a series of questions it was decided the Dr wanted to perform a cystoscopy. 5 days later Aug 7 - I was in the surgery center for the outpatient procedure - which I was awake for - if the numbing gel worked will I would hate to try it without the gel. After the procedure - the Urologist stated that he did see a tumor in the bladder - I of course, thinking I should ask some sort of question asked "Is that common think?" He replied in my line of work it is ... hmmmm dahhhh yeah - he's a urologist.

The Dr's office scheduled me for a transurethral resection (in other words using a cystoscope and removing the tumor). A biopsy was done and it was found to be malignant - Carcinoma In Situ which is stage I. This very early stage of cancer. The cancer is only found in the inner lining of the bladder. The biopsy also showed that the form of cancer found was an agressive strain.

The Dr suggested that we try Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (or BCG) once a wk for 6 wks. Then wait 6 wks and recheck (with a cystoscope) - Oh yeah!

We waited 3 weeks after the last treatment in case there would be any compounding side effects - which there were not so we took a trip to Texas to visit Cammie's family for 3 wks. Abt a week before we left Texas (5th week of the 6 wk waiting period) I started seeing blood in my urine once again - which told me that another tumor had developed - after all that is the reason I initally was seen by the urologist. I called him .. he said most likely I was correct - we'd check it when I return (an appointment was already set up for before we left for TX); he said the most important thing for me to do was drink water, juice etc - to keep things flowing - and if they didn't get to the hospital and have them catheterize me - needless to say I drank and drank and drank ...