MVAC question

Mona,
We seem to have similar situation;) If I could get you my email address (still new and not sure how to contact you) perhaps you could sent pdf file to me that way? Thank you for all the help. How is your husband doing now that he's 2 years out? Any results on his surveillance test? What do they do for surveillance test?

My husband still has his cecostomy tube and dripping from urethra. His bowels are a mess...diarrhea then constipation. Tube might be removed Friday (hope:woohoo: )

Although Gemzar/Cisplatin is now considered the gold star for chemo treatment I had some problems with this treatment so I was switched to the MVAC chemo and I had great success with it. I had 3 rounds of this and my only side effects were some nausea and fatigue. My cancer was invasive and rather advanced almost through the bladder wall. I just saw my surgeon for a checkup about 7 weeks ago and he told due to my success with the chemo and my fight to live and he was not going to say the third reason it was his surgical skills is the reason I am here today In a week I am hitting the 18 month being cancer free so although MVAC isn't the first choice of chemo prescribed today once agaian I have to say it was effective for me. God Bless, BCfighter

I had a message to say the file can't be uploaded as it's a pdf.

Hi Sonj,
My husband had a neobladder 2 years ago and opted for MVAC even though there was no node involvement. He was worried about the chance that something may have been missed and after discussion with the oncologist and urologist and reading through piles of literature we went for this option. He had 3 full cycles and, even though it's a miserable thing to go through, he did not have any life-threatening side effects. He was 35 then and our children were also 8 and 6. Two years on we are just waiting for the results of the latest surveillance tests. I have attached a paper about the MVAC treatment which we found useful. Feel free to ask me any specific questions you have. Good luck.
Mona

Sonj....how was your husband originally graded and staged....was it into the muscle or fat or outside the bladder? What was the grade and stage on the final pathology after cystectomy....you can ask for that report if you don't have it already.
I'm just more curious than anything as i had the same surgery at the same institution and was muscle invasive into the first layer at diagnosis....at the time of cystectomy all my nodes were clean (36 of them) and in addition my bladder miraculously was clean of all cancer cells...a few dysplasia cells floating around but nothing that indicated chemo.
Our board member who was also my mentor through this entire ordeal was diagnosed over 8 yrs ago when MVAC was still being used as first line and her pathology was a bit different as it was into her lymph nodes.
Just good questions to ask and get that final report.
Pat

Cynthia,
We meet with both MD's this Fri for hubby. Thanks for any info you can give. It's always good to go into appointments knowledgable so he can make good choices. Thanks

Pat,
Given the fact he's so young & healthy, their orig thought was chemo regardless to get all the "lil critters" that could potentially be hanging out. To increase his survival rate for our family! Will know more Fri.