At the start of this adventure, I set a goal to not have my bladder interfere with a session. I failed that this morning.

I pretty much followed my normal drinking schedule to fill my bladder for the session, but I could tell driving into the parking lot that this was going to be a close call. They called me back to the zapping room pretty much on time, but there was another prostate patient wrapping up his session, so I had to wait another ten minutes. As I waited, I could feel the pressure in my bladder getting even worse.

When he wrapped up his session, they called me back to the table and I told them we were in the “danger zone,” so they put an absorbent pad on the table just in case. As I sat on the table, I realized that I wasn’t going to make it and made a mad dash to the toilet, getting there just in the nick of time. And, because once I start emptying my bladder, I can’t stop in mid-stream and only partially empty it. It’s all or nothing. My bladder was empty.

The technicians had me stay in the area, drink some more water, and wait while they mapped the next patient. About twenty minutes later, I was back on the table, absorbent pad still beneath me, and we zapped away. By the time we were done, I was making a second mad dash to the toilet because my bladder was filled to capacity again.

In the end, the session was completed successfully.

This post originally appeared on Dan’s Journey Through Prostate Cancer on July 20, 2022. It is republished with permission.