My Dad's CT results came back for the mass outside the distal end of his right ureter: TCC. Did not get a stage or grade but it is most likely a met from his bladder cancer, or maybe it was there this whole 6 years. His oncologist sent him for a PET scan and there were indications of cancer in his lungs. With the amount of pain he has been having in his right leg, I am surprised the scan did not indicate bone mets. This all happened so quickly as there was no indication of any of this in scans done as recently as 3 months ago.
Dad is 86 and has been through so much surgery and poking and prodding and pain and suffering. He has already said he will not have chemo. He has an appointment with a radiologist next week, but I fear he will cancel that now that the PET has shown involvement in the lungs.
I want him to send the specimen off to MD Anderson or Johns Hopkins for a second opinion but he is not in favor of doing this. He says his time here is almost over and he accepts that. It is really hard for me to hear this as I have always wanted him to fight. He and my Mom just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary and he is mostly worried about leaving my Mom alone. She married Dad when she was 17 so she has never really lived alone.
I still am not convinced that the mass on the ureter is TCC and it could be something other than cancer that is in the lungs. He has developed blood clots in the leg and lungs and was on Coumadin but was recently taken off of it because of bleeding into his pouch. All signs point to a return of the bladder cancer but I am looking for zebras not horses.
Dad has been prescribed oxycontin and percodan for pain and it seems to help for now. I realize that if nothing is done (and even if it is), this cancer is a deadly one that moves quickly to critical places like the brain. Dad was always told for the last 6 years that he was "cancer free". Guess we know now that was not the case. His bladder cancer was not invasive and lymph nodes were clear. How does this happen?!
