Hi,
I thought that as there was no blogs in our department regarding bladder cancer.
My case is probably like most others but this is to assist those who follow me, i only hope that it helps.
I'm not a blog writer this is my first one so here goes.
About 15 months ago I started having severe pains down the right side of my abdoman so I was carted off the hospital by ambulance where I was given a shot of morphine and low and behold I was back to normal again.
Scans wee done and probes by specialist and it was decided I had kidney stones.
Accepting this I went home and carried on as normal. About a month later same thing happened again, this time in Stockport, visiting the step daughter, and of in the ambulance again. Again scan and probe and yes you have passed a stone there is a very small amount of blood in the urine.
Over time this became regular though I did not go to hospital as the pain lasted for about an hour or so then went off. I never saw a stone being passed, men are always looking to see what comes out of the penis, what else is there to do!
Anyhow in November 2009 I went again to the GP and he said that there was little else he could do. by this time I was having the same pains though milder on a weekly basis. I therefore said I would like a second opinion and in January this year I went to Yeovil Hospital and there saw another specialist and told him the symptoms.
Straight away he asked me to return in the afternoon and arranged a day clinic for me. In the afternoon with local anaesthetic he used a cystoscope and looked up into the bladder and said that thee was something fluffy inside.
consequently two weeks later I was back in hospital and had a biopsy taken and of course the result came back that I had a 'vigorous tumour'.
On learning this expression we thought that there was not much time left for life just because of the expression used.
As it turned out I had a T3 tumour where the urethera enters the bladder.
This means that the tumour has penetrated the inner wall or the bladder and grown into the muscle surrounding the bladder. I then had to go back for another biopsy three weeks later and came away from hospital feeling very week unlike the first time.
This time a stent was inserted in in the urethera and this after a couple of days started giving me pains especially when I urinated. Eventually went to the GP after various calls to nurses asking whether this was normal and was told that I had an infection. A strong course of anti biotics and I was back to normal except for the stent which carried on giving me pain.
On 13th April I went to see the surgeon and asked all the questions I had read about on the internet and he passed the test as far as I was concerned.
the only problem was he worked in Southmead hospital Bristol and we live near to Yeovil 60 miles away .
He told me the best course of action for a man like myself was a neo bladder.
That is take out the old and construct a new one from the small intestine so that eventually I would be as near to normal as could be expected.
It was explained that initially there would be a lot more inconvenience but after 3 to 4 months life would get back to normal. If I had other procedures then life would be back to normal far quicker but I would have to use bags for the rest of my life. There was no further question so he had my answer there and then and an operation was arranged for 5th May 2010
1st May
Well the op is getting nearer and this morning having read through many blogs and forums last night of what people have had to go through I am worried over what will happen to me. I think I am more worried for my partner as she sees the bleak side of most things. It was like when reading on the internet before I joined the Macmillan site the survival capability of cancer was such and such percent. WE believed this was for the patient but were eventually informed that this was for the re occurrence of cancer in the body, we were both greatly relieved on this as my chances were low.
On 29th we went to Southmead in Bristol for a pre op medical and since meeting the surgeon we had more questions to ask the staff but they were not from the Urology dept and therefore new nothing of the operation or even the administration of the wards such as visiting time etc, we came away not very happy
