Complete Surprise
Almost four years ago after a hard road bicycling ride, my urine looked like cherry kool-aid. I have had no other symptoms before. I am an avid bicyclist and try to ride fourty to fifty miles per week. This kool-aid was a complete surprise. I stayed quiet and didn't mention anything to my wife of fifty years.
Cherry kool-aid in my toilet?
I took another casual bicycle ride around our area to see what would happen. Nothing happened. Normal urine to the naked eye. Ok. Back to another hard ride the next day. Unfortunately, the kool-aid was back. This time I told my wife and we went to our family doctor the next day.
Results taking even my doctor by suprise
Immediately he referred me to a Urologist. My appointment was the next week. I wasn't too worried because my health was excellent. My doctor was very professional during the scoping. He has a surgery center in his office with the monitor so I could see what he was seeing. Amazing. There was a problem. Attached to the side of my bladder was something that looked like it belonged in an aquarium. It was growing into the center of the bladder not into the wall. When we both saw that, the doctor pretty matter of factly said it was cancer.
The process forward..
I was extremely lucky. The tumor was small, less than 1.5 CC, Ta, singular and slow-growing. One week later the doctor scraped the bladder wall and took it out. His prognosis was the tumor would be treated as a nuisance. At that time, in his opinion, no further treatment was required. If the cancer returned, we would talk about additional medical treatment. After his next scoping at six months, he was particularly happy. At the time, I didn't know the importance of no occurrence during the first year.
4 years cancer-free
I am almost four years into this journey with no reoccurrence. Blessed for sure. I am still riding my Trek hard twice a week. Who knows how far that small tumor could have progressed without early detection from bicycling. I hope my story will help others in their journey.
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