Could 2020 Get Any Worse?

On my birthday one year ago:  I was fit as a fiddle, working out, riding my trike, playing tennis, hiking up Juneau's biggest mountains, rowing my boat Io, planning on a future that would include grandkids (okay, Adelie will have to start liking children). As I turn 67 this Sunday I can ride my trike.  Yeah!  But I walk with a limp, my shoulder is compromised, I can't hike, I can't play tennis, and I am less fit because I can't do the aforementioned activities.  And I have bladder cancer! Hip Pain and Replacement Surgery My pelvis had been causing me pain since 2011.  It finally started to get serious: stab of pain every time the heel of my right took my full weight as I walked, stab of pain every time I compressed my right knee towards my chest, every time I put my right foot on my left knee.  Much of the time I was able to hike, bike, play tennis, run.  Oddly, walking and standing were difficult and sometimes lying down was painful.  I was defin...

  June 5 Hip Replacement Surgery A few days after my hip surgery I peed a huge amount of blood, followed a few days later, more blood.  My surgeon must have beat the crap out of my hip causing internal bleeding.  I stopped taking blood thinners. A week later and for the next two weeks I did urinalysis and microscopic RBC appeared in my blood. My urologist did a cystoscopy on my bladder and said, "Well, I don't see any - oops! I see a polyp!"  "You've got cancer!" Friday July 16 Bladder Cancer Surgery My urologist scraped the polyp out of the lining of my bladder and then gave me a dose of mitomycin (chemotherapy) in my bladder.  This is called the TURBT procedure. He left a catheter in my urethra which drained a mixture of blood and urine down into a bag strapped to my right leg. Every time I made the slightest movement my bladder would spasm causing the most powerful urge to pee which would never produce more than a few ml of pee but be incredibly painful. ...