The hospital experience

 Thank you so much for comments, it is lovely to read them.

Firstly, I want to say how impressed I was with the whole hospital setup, from a covid safety point of view.  Each new patient is asked to gel their hands and then has their temperature taken with a forehead thermometer before being allowed in the ward.  One patient in every other bed, so more than adequate social distancing.  All nurses wore full PPE, of course, and changed it after interaction with every patient, every single time, they must get through literally dozens of aprons/gloves etc each per shift.  And they gelled their hands every time they changed gloves too.  Every bit of equipment (blood pressure monitor, blood oxygen tester, diabetes glucose meter, etc) sterilised immediately after every use.  Cleaning staff on the ward the whole time constantly cleaning the toilets and wiping down all door handles, surfaces etc every few minutes.  I felt as safe as it was possible to be from a covid point of view.  My assigned nurse was called away at one point to go and have her covid jab in a big tent in the car park - personally, I reckon all medical staff should have had the jabs first.  After all, they're putting themselves at risk every working shift, and we as patients need them to stay healthy as they're looking after us.  Without exception, all the medical staff were wonderful.

The surgeon and anaesthetist were both very nice chaps, they explained quite clearly what they would be doing.  I've had general anaesthesia twice before and both times I had a bad reaction to it....it makes me violently sick and I feel like I've been run over by a steamroller for a week afterwards, whereas my husband, who's had loads of ops, is never sick and feels fine after 24 hours.  The anaesthetist said it's pants to be so sick and assured me he wouldn't let it happen - he was right, I wasn't sick at all, so well done him.

As for the procedure itself, I was having a camera in my bladder, the surgeon said he would have a good look round, check for diabetic nerve damage which is what he thought the problem was, or anything else - stones eg - and deal with it there and then.  Well, when he came to see me back on the ward, he said he found nothing, my bladder appeared normal.  At least, I think that's what he said, I was still very woozy then.  It does say bladder normal on my discharge notes though.  So whilst it's good that my bladder seems fine, essentially it means that I've had nothing done to treat the problem and it's still there.  I don't know what happens next, I think he said he will write to me, I have to go back for a follow up appointment in a few weeks.

*WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION*

The paperwork you get prior to going in said I may experience some passing of blood and some minor discomfort when peeing for a day or 2 afterwards....bollocks to that (excuse my language) - it was agonisingly painful.  There was quite a lot of blood, which thankfully stopped fairly quickly, but the pain when peeing was terrible, it felt like I was peeing burning broken glass or razor blades.  It's no longer that painful, just stinging now, and only when I pee, whereas yesterday my entire nether regions felt like they'd been chewed by a piranha and I seemed to be bleeding from everywhere down there, front to back.

Now, 2 days after the procedure, I still feel like I've been beaten up by a gang of hooligans, I'm tired all the time, stuffy head, and I have some very odd muscle aches and soreness.  E.g. my shoulders feel like the anaesthetist (a big bloke) must have been kneeling on them (I don't suppose he was!), the left side of my jaw is very sore for some reason, and my ankles are sore...from being in stirrups, I guess.  Strangely, I also have some small cuts, like paper cuts, on the fingers of my right hand...no idea about those but they weren't there when I went in hospital.  It's of no consequence, I'm just curious as to how they got there.  I'm feeling weepy and subdued, but I expect that will pass, although I am a bit upset that my problem hasn't been resolved.  I guess I'll have to speak to my GP next week.  For now, I'm just resting and doing nothing except reading and sleeping, husband is keeping me fed and watered.