Through a Pee(p)-hole

Up early last Monday to get to the hospital by eight o'clock in order to have a cystoscopy, as part of the check-ups being carried out three months after the operation to remove my left kidney because of an in situ carcinoma.

I had already taken in three urine samples for analysis the week before and now it was time for an internal check.

I was, of course, well sedated during the procedure, so knew nothing about it after I had been taken into the operating theatre until I was awoken by someone cleaning up my nether regions.

After spending some time in the recovery ward, the surgeon came to see me and assured me that no cancerous cells had been found in the urine and that the inside of the bladder looked fine, with the hole where the ureter had entered the bladder nicely closed.

All good news.

The bad news comes when the sedation has worn off and you go to the toilet. Burn, burn, burn. Incredible. I only had two days of it this time, thank goodness, but even with fairly large amounts of pain-killers, it was still unpleasant.

And another cystoscopy is planned in three months time.