I was diagnosed with the tumor about 14 weeks ago. I went throught the BCG and was re-scoped about 4 weeks ago. The tumor had grown back and was just starting into the muscle. So I am at the point of deciding which doctor to do my surgery.
I am in the process of gathering info on the RC surgery. I have pretty much decided on the Neo connected to the regular plumbing. I am 61 and it seems to be the most sense for me. I am fairly active and want to stay that way after. Thanks Mike for all of your time and info, your input is helping me a lot. I talked with a surgeon urologist here in town and he said he does the removal and has done 12 in a year or about 1 a month. Another female doctor does the reconstruction and i haven't interviewed her yet. If she does the reconstruction maybe I'll be more connected with my feminine side.
My wife would like that.
I have an appointment with MD Anderson on Tuesday Aug 2. I have the names of the 3 doctors that were recommended on this site and will be interviewing them when I go. I would like to have it done closer to my home, MD is 4 hours away, but will do it where I have the best chance at a good outcome. One thing my general practitioner told me was if I did the surgery at MD make sure one of my urologists here would help with the follow up. It would be a pain to have to go back and forth to MD for routine appts.
I am making a list of questions for them as I think of them.
1. How many neo's have they done ?
2. Can they do an epidural and will it help?
3. How does the connection from the neo-bladder come out to connect to the uretha?
Any other questions that I should think about asking ?
I will get back here with the answers I got and share them for others. Thank you all for your time and help. Having a site like this makes all the difference in the world as to how a person goes about taking all of this in and remains sane.