Testing 123 (456789)

I am writing these first few posts retrospectively as the decision to blog this has only come a little way down the line, but i wanted to get everyone in on the story from day 1, as it were.

So, a couple of days further on and still there is blood, which is a worry. Back to the doctors and he suggests i have some blood tests, and an ultrasound of my bladder to see what might show up, if anything. Thus begins the long saga that will continue of trips to the hospital. In this case its the QEQM which is only 10 minutes up the road from us. As always parking at QEQM is an issue; even with a blue badge, there are some half a dozen disabled spaces in the main car park, and at 4.30pm (the time of the ultrasound) these are like gold dust. Two whole sections of the main car park aisles are blocked by any number of cars all with engines running, waiting for that poor unsuspecting person in one of those disabled bays to come out, and suddenly 6 little old ladies in Nissan Micras descend on the space before the present occupier has even unlocked their car. I can't be bothered and grudgingly pay the £3 parking fee having negotiated the war zone that surrounds the disabled bays, each car being driven by a blue badge pensioner who will NOT pay the 3 quid, their steely eyed glare on every poor unsuspecting person walking from the hospital entrance into the car park.

Anyway, its into the ultrasound and an inconclusive test that doesn't tell us much (as I found out later).

The next couple of weeks goes by, some days with blood and others without, so as I am still not convinced that the antibiotics either were the right option, or if they were they weren't doing the job, the GP decides I need to have some further tests. He refers me to the Urology team for a cystoscopy (his words: a painless little procedure that uses a camera to look inside the bladder).