Most of you heard that the night that I got home from my 4,000 mile bicycle trip to the East coast Patty took me to the Emergency Room at the Albany Hospital because of very severe lower abdomen pain. They did a CAT scan and discovered that my bladder was the size of a basketball so they put a catheter in me and drained off 5 liters of urine which resulted in me feeling much better!! It has been a bit over a week since that exciting drive into Albany at 2 am. Today I went to see a Urologist about fixing whatever the problem was. I assumed as well as many others that sitting on that bicycle seat for 10 hours a day for 2 months was the cause, and that now that I was done with the trip everything would heal up just fine and be back to normal. Well the Urologist said nope, you don’t develope a bladder that big in just 2 months. He basically said that my bladder is done, it won’t ever work right again until Jesus comes and I get my new body (that last part I added) The  reason is probably because of my Parkinson’s disease. Here is a quote from “The Parkinson’s Handbook”. “Difficulty eliminating urine is another common problem with those who have Parkinson’s.  It can be caused by a sphincter that wants to close when the bladder is ready to empty or by a bladder muscle that is too weak to expel urine. This is a concern because incomplete bladder emptying can cause accumulation of urine. These problems should be carefully evaluated by your urologist. The most successful management is intermittent catheterization.” So the doctor said that I will need to do “self catheterization” three times a day for the rest of my life. The first time I did it I got all woozy and just about fainted. Wow, this is going to be fun. I was feeling sorry for myself and then I thought of my friend Lloyd who is diabetic and has to give himself a shot 3 times a day. It is a bummer to get old except that I am that much closer to heaven. Oh well, I am fortunate in that now I can go pee when I want to, not because I have to, cool.