"Ok, so I had my first visit to the urologist yesterday. He performed a cytoscopy - easily one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had in my life. It seems I have superficial stage 1 high grade bladder cancer. My take on that (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is, stage 1 means I have the beginnings of it, but high grade means I have a lot of it. Today I go for a CT scan to make sure it hasn't spread. Since it's stage 1, I'm guessing it probably hasn't. I'm having surgery next week, but I really don't know what that entails. I don't know ih he's going to cut me open like a Christams goose, or perform laparoscopic surgery. I'm hoping the latter. The was no mention of anything radical - it seems that he'll just remove the cancer, and life should go on as normal, with an occasional check to see if it's returned. Does all this sound like I have a handle on what's going on, or am I getting things wrong ? "