Blood and Wine

This is a diary of events surrounding the discovery that I have haematuria, blood in the pee. Initially, having undergone all ’standard’ non-invasive procedures, bladder cancer was not be ruled out as I did not submit to a cystoscopy examination.

My efforts since have largely been on discovering any bladder anomalies and minimising the symptoms. A cytology examination that discovered a small group of epithelial cells in a urine test is the now the focal point. The results were described as highly suspicious of ‘Transitional Cell Carcinoma’

this is a ne w page

23th September
After bit of heavy lifting I’ve had twinges for a few days and tested to find a few very small and light spots.
7th September
As there hasn’t been much to show in the haem tests, I rarely do them. So there will be no daily updates to the graph. This doesn’t mean it has all gone away but that it more worrying looking for a problem every day than ????. Once I have relaxed more from the earlier regime I shall consider what monitoring to do.
1st August
There has been a few twinges over the last two weeks but I’m not testing daily due to the lowering counts that seem to be fairly consistent.
19 July
Still having a few twinges lately but next to no haematuria. A bit worrying and I haven’t been working that hard due to the rain, which means more time sitting, eating, computing etc.
2nd July
Have had a few twinges lately but no haematuria.
17th June
Well I was hoping this would be a clear month, but alas it’s not to be so. I had a few quite strong twingie moments yesterday and the day before and today there was a marker. Don’t think I even tested yesterday? It also happened at Ru’s. I drank a fair bit of wine during the last couple of weeks and little or no cleavers - so I’ll make adjustments there.

This graph show the daily results of the haem tests for 2009 until Aug 31st

Half monthly averages with a ‘Power’trend line.

Half monthly averages shown as square root of above to indicate area that could be the source of blood.with a ‘Exponential’trend line.

25th May
Didn’t do a stick test yesterday and plotted zero, but today using a magnifying glass there was a tiny spot, so i plotted 0.1 If the tests show such low amounts for another month or so I will consider not using the magnifying glass or even stop doing the tests so regularly.

23rd May
Been feeling a bit twingie lately and there’s a bit of a corresponding haem output. However I have just started consuming omega-3 lipids via linseed oil and I saw a note on it facilitating blood in the urine - I think due to blood thinning. Will write an entry on this issue asa.

14th May
Forgot to test early on 13th. Didn’t drink much and did lots of physical labour. Getting one spot wasn’t a big deal, but I thought I test again so slept for a while, but when I awoke is was 14th. The next test was zero but I decided that the earlier score had to stand at 0.4

12th May
Again a small smudge that wasn’t repeated on a second test. The issue seems to be to do or not to do an early test.

9th May
I noticed a small spot today, that I had to confirm with a magnifying glass. I scored it as 0.4 as it seems at least two clear dots would represent 1 cell per µLt. A second test today seemed to show nothing but under a magnifying glass there was a small spot so I reduced the score to 0.2.

30th April
I am a bit concerned as I had a bit of color on the marker last night at about 4am. I had been feeling as but off and today I’m not so cool. However another haem test about 5pm seems ok.

28th April
I’ve had some small twinges but it hasn’t transformed to any significant haematuria. There was a single very light dot this morning and as I am likely to test again as a consequence the record will show zero unless the second test shows a mark.

19th April
Well surprisingly the tests have been rather negative for a few weeks, however after a few days of alcohol and a late night, my early morning pee did have a some marker (1 max). This led me to test twice more and the results were zero, which iused as the figure for today’s plot.

10th April
I have used up the final sticks that had Leukocytes markers, which indicated ‘normal’ readings. The new sticks have Bilirubin and Urobilinogen.

7th April Well things are not getting worse. This first week has been OK. I have slight twinges now and then and the blood tests are sometimes very slightly questionable, but not enough to mark up.

I have started daily testing again to monitor this spring’s increase relative to autumn 2008.

I’m also drinking more and drinking more of the ‘cleavers’ etc.

March 24th:- If anything, things are not getting better this year so far. Although the daily haem results are very low and I feel OK most of the time, I am having to take the increase over the last few months of 2008 seriously.

Well the fist week of February is a continuation of the January regression and although nothing serious may be in the offing it isn’t a good sign. I’m not keen on a daily or more frequent check to monitor the change.

I am going to check less regularly and create a graph only of the results. There will be no more blUsh daily record.

The new graph will start Jan 1st, leaving the old 2008 one on a good note. The graph will be plotted daily but some of the element will just be interpolated between actual readings.

End of FebI haven’t done any haem stick-tests for 10 days or so as I was away and didn’t take them with me. However on my return the results have been zero, much to my delight. My records for this period contain a single 1/µg a) to give the graph some substance and b) as i can’t believe it was that good all the time I was away.