Dear Susan,
You are courageously and admirably showing us all your strengths in dealing with bladder cancer.
I wish I could turn the clocks back also and have listened to my body more with the chance and hope of an earlier diagnosis. You are certainly not stupid in your actions as you did the best you could do with the knowledge you had. I too have beat myself up so many times and we both know it only takes us off the focus of the now and so is just not worth it. (easier said than done though)
The world we live in is very materialistic and we think nothing of spending money on decorating our homes and spending loads of money on maintaining our gas guzzling cars. It is such a shame we are not educated more too at least every three years spend money on our own bodies and have a preventative body scan.
We have all since our diagnosis become so much more aware and educated to this disease and if you knew then what you know now, yes it could have been different. You are certainly not to blame for that and you are doing just fine by trying to put the things you cannot change in a place that will not hurt you anymore.
I for one have been inspired and enlightened by you sharing your story and you will not only help others avoid the pitfalls as you mentioned, you will also save the lives of others. We are all connected together in one universe and your openness to share will help so many.
Maybe the Rational Therapeutics testing can be discussed at your evaluation at M.D. Anderson. It certainly seems to make sense to test your type of cancer cells to find the best chemo compound that reacts positively, giving you the best chance. My hope is this type of testing will become standard as presently it is as you know hit or miss to the success of chemo.
Susan, thank you for being strong as it makes me stronger too....
Kind Regards
Leigh
