The map of the journey--Andy

Thanks KC -

I'd be proud to beat Rudy's record, but I'll be fine with slow and steady too! I appreciate the offer of help, everyone here had been great. Talked to Jim this afternoon and feel even better about having Dr. Hafez at UM doing my surgery. Thanks Jim - hope to see you on the 19th. I'm ready - let's go. Onward and Upward!

Andy

Andy,
Good Luck on your upcomming surgery. Rudy is the current holder of the fastest recovery time. Here's hoping you can be the new recovery time champ! It wont be long and you'll be looking back on all this and living a normal life WITHOUT CANCER! Dont forget that durring your recovery we will all be here to answer questions and give support. Wishing you the best.

KC

Hang in there Andy. March 2nd is right around the corner.
Dr Hafez will take good care of you. God Bless him. He is a wonderful man.
I really made him work. I only had about half the intestien available to make my Neobladder out of. He said a younger or less experienced doctor would have said, "give him a bag, and sew him up." This may sound silly, but I really look forward to my follow up appointments. For some reason, I just like to see the person who gave me life. haha
I see him again March 19th for my nine month follow up, a month late. All the best, you are in great hands.
And yes, your cancer is going down, big time. Jim

This will not be a walk in the park as you probally know.
But it sure beats the alternative. Some days you will feel like you are going nowhere fast. Then all the sudden you will be like me, 10 months post op, feeling great, and wondering where time went.

p.s. If you would like to talk, PM me with your phone number.

p.s.s. exercise's Mike was talking about
medicalcenter.osu.edu/PatientEd/Materials/PDFDocs/exer-reh/physical/IncontinenceExerProg.pdf

You've got that right Andy! That's the attitude that will get you through.

I've got to sign off now. Going to get back up to the room with some coffee before my wife wakes up.

Mike

Mike -

I'm sooo jealous! But it's great you're having a fine time in Cancun. You're definitely an inspiration for many of us and we appreciate you a lot. I'm ready to get this done, there's too much living to do to worry about cancer daily. Andy

Andy,

In no time you will be here in the hotel lobby in Cancun checking the site to see how others are doing.

You may want to ask your doctor about the kegel exercises. If you have some time before surgery, you can be doing those exercises which help strengthen you pelvic floor muscle. This helps you to get continent sooner.

Somebody posted some other exercises you can do as well that help but I had only received the kegel instruction sheet. You can look them up via Google and get instructions.

By the way, I can now check scuba diving off my list of things that I've done since my RC. I had 214 dives prior and now have two since. Would have done more, but I thought better of it for a different reason. Since my wife doesn't dive anymore I kept it to two dives and spent most of the rest of the time body surfing with her in the waves of Cancun and generally hanging out together just having fun.

Mike