Those of you who have read previous chapters of this blog will probably understand the title without explanation. I really wanted to call it ‘Piss like an Elephant’, but that would be too crude for me! For anyone who may be reading this for the first time, let me explain…

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer over seven years ago. At that devastating time we were told I had four to five years to live. Looking back, the only obvious symptom I had at the time was that it was increasingly taking me longer to empty my bladder when going to the toilet. Bim had noticed if we were out shopping together, that if we both used the public toilets (if we were in John Lewis for instance) that she would finish before me. Neither of  us mentioned this as I think we both thought it was just part of getting older. It had been a very gradual  process, which may have been building up over a number of years before I went to the doctor and had the blood test which found the high PSA which led to my diagnosis. 

Since that time I have been on various medications which have kept me alive and basically healthy, but the symptoms of an enlarged prostate had been getting worse over this time. In December 2022, the tumour had grown to a point where it was making it impossible for me to pee properly. Without going into too much detail it meant that I had the urge to go almost constantly, but was unable to manage more than a dribble. I was unable to sleep because I was getting up twenty to thirty times every night. I saw the Urology team at Mid Suffolk Hospital, who gave me self administered catheters so that I could actually get some sleep. I was also put on the waiting list for a TURP (Trans Urethral Resection of the Prostate), but was told there was quite a long waiting list. My Oncologist consultant called this a rebore, which makes your eyes water to think about. 

At this point I can explain the title – The King and I. King Charles has just had the same TURP operation to relieve the symptoms of an enlarged prostate, although I daresay, he didn’t have to wait for more than a year to have his! After two cancellations, (one because of the Junior Doctors strike), I finally had my operation at the end of February. Sadly for the King he has also had a cancer diagnosis, although we don’t know which type. I had excellent care in the hospital and was allowed home the next day. I have to be cautious not to do too much, but I returned to work after a week off and now two weeks later feel that I have almost fully recovered from the operation. I may not be able to quite ‘piss like an elephant’, but the operation has worked wonders. I now only get up maybe once a night and have the flow rate of a much younger man!

Enough about my urinary habits. I expect many of you have already stopped reading at this point, so let’s talk about something else. Firstly my health continues to be good with the latest hormone treatment – Enzalutamide, working brilliantly. My PSA is still low and I am able to carry on life as normal, which of course involves Holidays. 

You knew I couldn’t write a blog without including our latest travel experiences, didn’t you? Looking back I realise that the last blog we published was May 23. I won’t list everything we have done since then, just a couple of highlights.

In September last year we visited my brother, Bill and sister in law, Emmanuelle in their new home in the south of France. We spent a week there and had a fantastic time catching up with them and seeing the local sights. It’s a beautiful part of the world. Naturally Bill and I had to see who could drink more red wine. I have to admit that I really couldn’t keep up, although I did try.

I thought I would mention New Year’s Eve now. We don’t normally do anything special and tend to have an early night. For some reason I was feeling a little down that evening, which is unusual for me, but I was cheered up when Bim brought me a rather good glass of red at 5pm. Things went downhill from there! I’m not quite sure how how this happened, but we ended up dancing around the kitchen until late having both consumed a good quantity of Prosecco (Bim) and red wine (me). Not only this, but for some reason we decided to film it, not quite sure why. Please don’t feel you have to watch, but I have included the rather embarrassing results below.

I think the only other holiday to mention was an amazing five night stay in Reykjavik in January. This was planned in secret to surprise one of Bim’s oldest friends – Nicki, for her 60th birthday. She was in Iceland with four of her friends for her birthday, and then seven more of us joined her to surprise her on the day. It was six months in the planning and it was fantastic to see her face when we were all revealed. Absolutely priceless. We have never been to Iceland before, but what a stunning country it is. The land of ice and fire. I have added a few photos below.

I think that’s all for now, other than to say thank you for reading. In our next blog we will be telling you about a trip to Diamonds Athuruga in the Maldives. We are due to visit in April, so not long now. We are getting very excited.