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

WELL...you certainly cannot take my bladder, my uterus, my ovaries, my fallopian tubes, my urethra, my vaginal wall, my appendix and 50cc of my bowell..absolutely not!! Women seem to get a lot of stuff taken out.
Really had to think hard about that one....for about 3 minutes
Alternative didn't look so good. I'm still in contact with 3 widows whose husbands let it go...not those that were diagnosed late but those that just decided they would eat healthier so they died with a stomach full of spinach, vitamins, pom juice and whatever the snake oil salesman sold them. Now i'm not knocking spinach or vitamins or pom juice as they are regulars in my diet...snake oil no! Although now that i think about it i haven't seen any studies with snake oil!!
I'm always amazed at what i find kills cancer cells in the petri dish but can't be applied to the body......for instance, olive oil and button mushrooms will kill breast cancer cells on contact....well heck, just pour some of that in the opening!!..over simplified ya think?
Ok i'm rambling but today is the 8th anniversary of my new Indiana Pouch...So Happy Birthday Hal.
Pat

Mike; I know how you feel when people refuse to get help. I have family members who do the same thing, and it drives me
crazy. For me i know some of it is, how can i keep doing this just to see loved ones die!
Quick story. A couple months ago when i was told i needed an
RC. We stopped at the cancer center at the hospital to get whatever info they had on RC surgery,etc. What info we got was ten to twenty year old info. And i can come home and get on my laptop and get todays up to date info. To me I'm amazed at the info. and support one can find here.
Great to hear you had a good checkup !
Duke

Duke,

I can understand the thought process being different for you given it was your third type of cancer. I'd have probably been thinking "What's the point? I'll probably just get another freakin' cancer as soon as I fix this one."

However, like you, I'd have probably only thought something like that for a week or less and come to the conclusion that this crap isn't going to beat me so I will deal with this one now and be done with it and if something else popped up later, I would deal with that too.

I'm not sure why I was so frustrated yesterday when I wrote that. It was actually a good day for me as I had my 1 year 3 month checkup and everything is fine.

There's a guy who's wife posted that her husband is refusing even to think about getting an RC on another site that I look at once in a while. There's another guy that should have made the decision a long time ago and I've been speaking with a family member of his for a while. He's finally going to do it but I'm concerned he may have waited too long because it was invasive a long time ago and he chose to ignore it.

All we can do is try to give people good information so that they can make informed decisions. It's just really frustrating when some people just make up their minds that quality of life is some major issue with an RC when it really isn't. I've had a bunch of different complications that most people don't even have after an RC and I only consider this to be a minor inconvencience. I can't say that there is anything I've been dealing with that I'd consider even falling under the umbrella of "quality of life".

That may be a little different for you right now because you are recovering from the surgery. I suppose one could call it a quality of life issue, but I considered that a "recovering from surgery" issue.

I mean, what's a 2-3 month investment spent recovering from a major surgery when compared to the ongoing benefit of being cancer free? If one ignores this stuff it spreads to lungs, bones, kidneys, liver, etc.

I just don't see how some folks make up their mind about something without trying to find out the facts first.

Mike

Mike; a very interesting article and everything you said is so true. But i do have to say for me, the thought process with bladder cancer was a little different then the other cancers I've had. I'm not sure why. Partly my age this time(63), Partly
i was afraid of all the possible complications I read about.
When I had bone cancer in '91/'92 the odds were not very good, and the chemo was killer. But I new what i had to do and my attitude was lets get it done! Lung cancer in '99/'00 was pretty much the same. Not once did i ever think to ask what if i just have chemo, or don,t do surgeries. Even tho this time
my odds were much better, I have to admit I did have the thought, and I did ask the question "what if I do nothing".
For some reason this type of cancer and surgery for me was different. Right now it's hard to see things getting back to normal or feeling active again. Its like I've aged a lot in this last month.
But I knew for my family and myself what I had to do the whole time. And I know already that it was the right decision. Part
of my correct decision came from reading these forums. thank you all.
I hope there are people out there that find the correct answer they are looking for in your article. Duke

** This thread discusses the content article: To the folks who say: I'll NEVER let them remove my bladder. **

Folks,

I've seen in writing and heard through others about people who say that they would never have their bladder removed even if it knew it might kill them because of a concern about quality of life.

As someone who has had my bladder removed in October of 2008, I'd like to share a little bit of information that may be helpful for you if you ever have to face the question of having a Radical Cystectomy (RC).