a fairground life (road to recovery)

        I'm dreaming, someone is calling my name,Im dreaming Im talking to???,someone awakens me. Sipping a little water and I'm awake. The clock shows nearly 6pm, after another snooze I'm on the move through doors and awaken again in the ward. My wife looks at me and I wink back, surprisingly many friends are there waiting for me. As I move from trolley to bed I notice for the first time the pipes trailing from my manhood. Surprisingly no pain and I move with ease. After they get me settled in, the nurse explains that I have a drip flushing out my bladder and that it will be in overnight. Visitors arrive, no not visitors, my best pals arrive, I'm feeling jolly,no doubt an after effect of the medication still fading in my veins. I joke "1 out of 3 people get cancer, I've took one for the team so you's will be ok", they laugh but no doubt out of politeness. The rest of the evening is fuzzy. I'm awake all through the night, not tired but then its hard to sleep with one hand holding pipes up as the weight is beginning to hurt. The next day the doc arrives, he said the cancer appeared to be an aggressive type, but time would tell. Being point blank I asked him survivability. Oh 80% if we got it early enough with a 90% chance of reoccurrence in the first two years, again pathology would have to report on the depth of the infection. It turned out he had told me all this before, but I couldn't remember talking to him. He explained that they were in a little longer than expected but he was confident that he got it all. He suspected that I had the tumour for about a year. I was to get a dose of mitomycin to kill any rouge cells off. So after lunch the mito arrived,they swapped over pipes on my catheter and squirted the mito in, I could feel a cooling sensation. Basically I had to hold this for the magic hour  before passing it. Some people cant do this do to irritation, burning sensation but I knew the longer it was in the better any chance of a result. There was a clock on the wall and as I laid back I wondered how long I could last. The first 15mins went by quickly with no problem at all, by 30 minutes I had no worries of doing the hour. At 45 minutes I had other concerns-maybe it wasn't reaching the right place?,so I rolled a little each way in bed, but no sensation or irritation. Oh no! I though, they have either given me a placebo or worse-the wrong stuff!! Its amazing the silly thoughts that go through your mind at times. Anyhow the hour was done and the nurse came back to remove the treatment via a suction syringe and then remove the catheter (eeeooohhh!) I said to him "I understand that nuisance patients don't get all the liquid removed from the balloon, well I can assure you I haven't been a pest". He laughed and said "not at all, where did you hear that nonsense, deep breath and breath out through the mouth". Well I know now why they make you do that breath out, simply you CAN'T SCREAM WITH YOUR LUNGS EMPTY! A quick sharp jolt and the very long&thick catheter was out. A few seconds to recover and relief. All I had to do now was pass water 3 times,fully emptying my bladder each time and if confirmed by ultra sound, I would be home for tea. I drank that jug of water like a man in the desert. I don't know what concoction of poisons is in that mito gear, but I had to sit to pass urine into a specimen jar and notify immediately of any splashes or spills so it could be cleaned up. And passing the water was what I could only describe as pissing FIRE or  GLASS. Each time it was unpleasant but I did get home for tea. That was me in bed for a week. It was nearly 2 weeks later before things started to settle down. The next day "r" had to take the two machines into the street fair. As usual blakey and several others came to the rescue and gave him a hand while I was laid up. The fair was only over a weekend, business was slow but I had a different outlook now and wasn't concerned. For the first time ever, I read a full magazine from cover to cover, National Geographic, very interesting. A week in bed then back to work.