bladder cancer

Hi - my husband had his bladder removed in July of 2002, about a year after undergoing BCG treatments for recurring lesions. He has a neobladder which has worked out very well. He came through the surgery fine and has had few problems as far as the after effects of that. He was back to work in 6 weeks. He was node negative at the time of surgery so he did not have follow up chemo or radiation. However in January of this year he had a recurrence on the pelvic wall, for which he has now undergone 7 weeks of radiation and chemo and was about to start his next round of chemo when he developed what we think is some sort of infection. It's been a rough couple of months. But the success of the bladder surgery and his year and half cancer free after that was fine. Feel free to email me if you'd like - I did alot of research on this before hand and we had one of the best surgeons in our area do the procedure. I wish your husband the best outcome - it's not an easy process but that was easier to get through than what we are going through at the moment.

AuthorUnknown said:

Hi,

I am a 51 year old female. I was diagnosed with bladder cancer when I was 47 years old. Specifically, I have Transitional Cell Carcinoma. My first suggestion is to find out what type of bladder cancer he has. I have Transitional Cell Carcinoma which is the most aggressive type of bladder cancer.

But, first things first. I was in the hospital for 10 days when they remove my bladder and made my ostomy. The learning curve will be high the first month. It gets easier after that. I have traveled to Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East with my ostomy. The upside to having an ostomy is I can sleep all night and not have to get up to go to the bathroom.

Since 1998, I have had 5 major surgeries, 21 surgical procedures, and this is not counting CT-scans every 3 months.

If you would like more information, I will be glad to share. You can email me.

Jo Dell

Hi Jodell,
I am a 52 yr old female who was dx in 2002. I just had my first reoccurence of bladder ca after 2 yrs of clear cystos. They say I have non invasive stage 1 superficial carcinoma but my tumor was the size of a baseball when first discovered. I had surgery upon dx and was supposed to be an outpatient but walked out 28 days later. Almost lost my life and definitely lost my health. I've also had 2 surgeries to remove what they thought was ca but turned out to be nephrogenic adenoma of the bladder wall. I have cystos every 3 months at Emory Univ Clinic in Atlanta. I am practically incontinent and that has definitely altered my quality of life.
I know you must remember that part. I am not overweight but am trying to lose 5 or 10 lbs right now to see if it will help. I am single so dating is a little nervewracking as you might imagine. Always worry about an accident.
If you have any info for me please send me a note. I'd appreciate it.

golfgirl said:

Hi - my husband had his bladder removed in July of 2002, about a year after undergoing BCG treatments for recurring lesions. He has a neobladder which has worked out very well. He came through the surgery fine and has had few problems as far as the after effects of that. He was back to work in 6 weeks. He was node negative at the time of surgery so he did not have follow up chemo or radiation. However in January of this year he had a recurrence on the pelvic wall, for which he has now undergone 7 weeks of radiation and chemo and was about to start his next round of chemo when he developed what we think is some sort of infection. It's been a rough couple of months. But the success of the bladder surgery and his year and half cancer free after that was fine. Feel free to email me if you'd like - I did alot of research on this before hand and we had one of the best surgeons in our area do the procedure. I wish your husband the best outcome - it's not an easy process but that was easier to get through than what we are going through at the moment.

Bladder cancer
Golfgirl...I would be interested in talking to you please. My husband has a similar situation to your husband and we are in need of advice before his radiaiton commenses. Can you please email me at dc7rn@aol.com? Thank you.