To the folks who say: I\'ll NEVER let them remove my bladder.

It was a real surprise finding out that Rudy and I both live in Fort Collins, CO. We set up a meeting and it was great. Small world!

Glad to hear everything has gone so well for you Rudy!

Sometimes when people talk about quality of life with a neobladder, I kind of think "What kind of quality of life is it having to wear glassees or contact lenses? What about dentures?".

At least with my neobladder, it doesn't fog up when I walk outside in humid weather! Glasses were much more of a pain than my neobladder is.

Quality of life! Humbug! It's a piece of cake and I'm even one of the guys who had complications. I wear condom catheters when I sleep, but guess what: I sleep completely uninterupted through the night, every night. I have to catheterize myself, but that's a piece of cake as well.

Still have all my teeth so I guess I will carry on. For heaven's sake, if I needed full dentures, I'm just not sure it would be worth it given the quality of life concerns. How could I go on without being able to eat caramel apples and gumdrops?

Mike

RC is an emotional topic for many, I had some real concerns when I was faced with it. Fortunately, I met Mike on this site and he relieved me of some anxiety. While I still was nervous and apprehensive about what the future would hold for me and my family, I decided it was better to be rid of cancer than to go on like I had been for almost 5 years with no success.

I am now 8 months out from my Neo-Bladder ordeal and I have to say my quality of life is even better than before. Many have had some problems afterward, but I have had none of the ups and downs that some people have had. I do everything I did before and don't make half the bathroom trips that I used to.

So if there are any people out there who have the fear of this procedure all I can say is seek out the best doctor/surgeon and hospital and get-er-done. It is much better than living with cancer.

And a special note of thanks to all the people here and Mike who was very helpful to me.

Rudy living the dream!

Duke,

Glad to hear it.

I understand what you mean about the first couple of months, but I guess I never even considered it a "quality of life" issue. I suppose we all have our own sets of definitions. As for me, I considered it recovery from a major surgery. That does take time.

As for the exception conditions, that is the reason that so many of us here push hard for people to get to the best surgeon they can get to. Pat even gives the names of those top surgeons.
While there is never a guarantee, the risks of complications are so, so, so much lower with the top 'bladder cancer' surgeons at the top hospitals.

As my doctor said to me, "Consider the recovery time an investment in your future". I liked that way of thinking about things. A couple of months or so in trade for a much longer future. Easy choice my friends! Great return on "investment"!

Mike

I posted on this thread early on when i was only about one month post RC. Still very much hurting at that time, but even then i
agreed with everything Mike said. Now i'm a little more then six
months out and everything Mike posted is even more on point.
Six months out i am feeling about as good as ever. Compared to all
the stories i have read on this site, my DR. did one hell of a job. Everything is back to working better then i even thought
would be possible! Only issue is a little leaking late in my
sleeping cycle. If i do enough excercises and limit my drinking
in the evening, even that would be taken care of.
Quality of life the first couple months isn't great, but after that it is pretty much back to normal. There are exceptions to this, like what Rick has had to go through, but every surgery has
it's risks. Wishing you the best Rick
Duke

How did I miss this discussion? This "attitude" of Quality of life vs cancer argument has been in some of my friends vocabulary for a while. This kind of has the ring of "I won't immunize my child for certain deadly diseases."

The choices are: Take Action ... or ..... Death!

As for me, and I am NOT complanen' I still have incontinence problems 2 years out. After 2 years of being th poster child of ED, I am finally able to "get it up" without drugs. I have a great scar and finally have the nerve to wear board shorts to the beach. I have a fear, that comes and goes, that this cancer thing is always around, lurking, and ready to mess with my head. Notice I said head, not body. I can always fight a frontal assault on that enemy.

I NEVER gave it one moments thought when the Doctor said "you have cancer" I wanted the MOST Aggressive attack available. Some may say that I "rushed things" and didn't think about the consequences. The only consequence I could see was being dead.

Quality of life! This is my quality of life! I ski, play guitar, sing in a quartet, race cars, play golf, keep up a mean relationship with the greatest wife in the world (who kicks my butt on the golf course), have watched my small town auto dealership come back from the grave of recession, started a new business and found out just how much being alive means to me!