Lucia,

>this is a wonderful story, Mark. I hope you don't mind my asking, was it
>painful?

Passing the tumor was not unbearably painful.  But psychologically it
was
very upsetting to have several episodes of blood in the urine over the
course of a couple of weeks, followed by this strange mass of
something
coming out.  Then, when the doctor called and told me it was
cancerous, I
experienced a considerable amount of fear and dread, because I knew I
didn't want surgery, but I was also worried about the possibility of
becoming incontinent, or even dying.  The only truly physically
painful
part of the whole ordeal was the cystoscopy test, where they inserted
a
solid glass catheter with a tiny camera into my urinary tract all the
way
to the bladder.  As painful as it was, though, I am glad I had  it
done,
because when the results came back my fears vanished.  But never
again!

Mark
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