I am a Neo Bladder owner. I had this wonderful new bladder built for me in July of 2006 after fighting for two years with multiple BCG treatments. I was 40 years old when this all started. I am from Rochester New York. The surgery was done using the Di Vinci robot which kept my hospital time down to 10 days. By September of 06 I was back to work. The foley was removed at the end of August and I was on my own at that point " at least for urinating". The surgery went well and the healing progressed fast. I had two issues that are still bothering me to date. The first issue is the bowel functions. I am still on a powder percription colostyrene which stops the diarehia and allows me to at least have a normal bowel movements. I tried to go off it for one day this week, and the problem is still was there. I hope there will be an end to this and my bowels will function normally without the use of the very expensive powder. The second issue is the scaring that has built up around the connection between the urethra and the new bladder. I have had 5 TURBs to remove the scare tissue that keeps on growing. These procedures generallyshow good results for last about two weeks and then urine flows will drop and then I have to cath. The last surgery I had was just before Christmas and the urine flow has just stared to slow down. Of course as this happens I retain more urine and an infection occurs. I was told that a stent can be placed over this area where the scaring occurs. Has anyone had this stent added? I was told this is a last resort effort to stop the scaring. I was told that this stent could cause incontinence if placed poorly causing interference with the spincter (sp) muscle which would not be good. As it stands my days are dry and I have total control, I am still having some problems staying dry at night. I use a pad but I don't always get up in time to go to the bathroom. I just had my six month CT scan and blood work and I am Cancer free which is Great. I just want to get these other issues under control. I am alive and kicking, I just want to kick higher and live life to the fuller. Please let me know of anyones thoughts and if you might have gone through any of the issues I mentioned.
Thank you and God Bless this Web site has been a wonderful source of inspiratation and information for my wife and me.
Mike DeRose
