As I mentioned my bladder cancer made another appearance in 2002. It was when I had to travel to Chepstow from my home in Cheshire for a meeting. I was up very early that particular day for the trip of 139 miles which actually took me around 3 hours or so to drive.
However, when I arrived at the conference hall I urgently needed the loo and when I went I passed a large volume of blood which really frightened me and brought back some unpleasant memories. I then could not face the meeting and when I gave my reasons to the organizer she was very sympathetic and actually tried to get me to go to the nearest hospital in Chepstow.
I decided not to go to the local hospital and went home instead. Arriving back home after a call to my GP I went to the surgery and the GP referred me immediately to the Urology consultant who just happened to be Mr. Paul Irwin, whom you may recall I already knew from my first encounter with this bladder cancer.
He arranged a procedure called a flexible cystoscopy to enable him to look inside my bladder, having done that he was then able to confirm that the bladder cancer had indeed returned.
Thankfully I wasn’t quite as scared this time around, after all, I’d beaten it once and I naturally felt very confident that I would beat it again.
After the initial operation which was done again within 2 weeks of this alarming discovery, I then had regular checks for about six years before being told that it had finally been beaten. From 2008 onwards until 2013, I had further regular checks with the flexible cystoscopy. I was finally discharged in the Autumn of that year, 2013.
I will have to wait and see now if the bladder cancer decides to come back again. I sincerely hope not.