This past spring I had an acute attack of pancreatitis. To diagnose this I had to undergo a CT scan. Pancreatitis can often cause problems for months resulting in hospitalization and stays in ICU. I was lucky, my doctor sent me to the ER. I received treatment and was back to normal two days later.

However, the CAT scan found something else. I had a very large and unusual shaped bladder. My doctor was very insistent that I see a urologist and have this looked into. After she called me up a month after the pancreatitis attack to again insist that I see a urologist she made me understand that this was something I needed to see a specialist about so I made an appointment with Dr. Mukeesh Patel and let him have a look.

Dr. Patel found that I had an enlarged bladder. Not only was my bladder enlarged but the muscle wall of the bladder had herniated and allowed the inner lining of the bladder to escape forming two diverticulum. This isn’t a problem unless the diverticulum are retaining urine. Mine were. The cause stemmed from an enlarged prostate restricting flow and not allowing my bladder to empty. So I had a procedure called transurethral ablation to open up the urethra.

This worked but after six months my bladder is still retaining urine. The diverticulum are filling up now and not emptying. Yesterday the decision was made to operate again to remove the diverticulum. I suggested December 6 and he is suppose to get back with me by tomorrow to confirm that date or give me an alternate.

This will cause me to lose at least a week of work but it should give me time to heal over winter and get back to riding my bicycle by mid January. I will need to start back then because I have plans for April. I’ll tell you more about those as I fill in the details myself. Hopefully this will bring an end, at least for now, to my health issues that have plagued me this year.

UPDATE: Surgery has been scheduled for December 7th.