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 [log in to unmask]