Hi All, I havent been on here for a long time but its coming up to my fathers annual check up and it got me thinking about everyone here!! When I came on line I saw that there are a lot of new comers here with lots of questions just like I did a few years ago so decided to give an update on my dad and show that life does go on after Bladder Cancer, for those of you who don't know my dad was 55 when he was diagnosed with T2 G3 bladder cancer, very active young 55 year old, we got a second opinion in MSK with Dr Bochner (can not praise this guy enough!!) he recommended RC (neobladder - my father wanted something as close to normal as possible) as there was evidence of muscle invasion with chemo (Cisto/Gemcitabine) before sugery!! My dad had 3 months of chemo!! This was a pretty tough but he got through it and I think the chemo defo played a part in completely killing all signs of cancer - so it was worth the few months of misery!! Then he had surgery Sept 08....was in hospital for 7 days, only complication was a UTI a few days after release from hospital, he was up walking after one day...morphine helped alot - and gave us a few days of entertainment - my dad wanted to go for a few beers and dinner about 5 hours after surgery, he has no memory of this ha ha!! He had catheter and drainage for 3 weeks after release, these were a bit of pain (flushing and sometimes leakage etc!!) was great relief to get these removed!! Then on to recovery, which was suprisingly quick, at his first check up he was completely continent during the day (Dr was even shocked!!) Night time followed after that!! And he has been 100% dry day and night since then (no pads, nothing!), well with the exception of when he drinks too much beer (he sometimes wears a light pad if he's drinking alcohol for the night - just in case!!)
As with any surgery it certainly isnt easy at the start but every week there is an improvement and little things make all the difference!! To be honest even when I'm writing this it seems like it all happened to someone else because we've all moved on.....my dad is back to doing everything he did before the surgery, back working too hard, still eating food that's bad for him and not exercising enough ha ha!! He's got a check up next week which hopefully will go smoothly and he'll be onto yearly check up's after that I think - its is 2 years and 2 months since his surgery!! I know when you or a member of your family are newly diagnosed its really scary and there's so much information to take on board and decisions to make but just know that there is an light at the end of the tunnel and your life will go back to normal!! Hope this helps anyone who is scared or nervous about results or newly diagnosed!! I would also like to say that without this website things may not have worked out as well for us, I was given great advice (Thanks Pat, Mike G and Eileen) and support (from everyone on the site!!) which really helped so if you have questions don't be afraid to ask, there's always someone there to help - and it takes alot of pressure off when you have someone to talk to that is or has been going through the same thing!! Hope all is well xxx
