Three Month Cysto - Never Clean

The Wife Again,

I'm Cynthia's husband and wanted to give you my thoughts:

> We live in western MA, almost on the NY state line. Cynthia was diagnosed at our local medical center, but then went to the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers at MA General.

> She has also consulted with a doctor at Beth Isarel Deaconess Medical Center. She could provide you with additional information if you send her an e-mail.

> If your husband's doctors have started to talk about an RC, I'm sure that you have started to research the procedure. Before Cynthia's RC, we visited a doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. He provided us with information related to the three most popular urinary diversions: 1.) ileal conduit, 2.) Indiana pouch, and 3.) neo-bladder. Being an engineer, if found it interesting that in his female patients, it was about an equal number for each of the three common diversions. For the male patients, the Indiana pouch was about 10 to 15 percent and the remaining number were about equal between the ileal conduit and the neo-bladder.

> If your husband does need to have an RC and all three options are available to him, then he'll need to decide on which type. Obviously, as with any surgery, the doctors can't guarantee which type he'll receive until they acutally operate.

> As Cynthia's posted indicated, the goal is to beat the cancer, but there are also quality of life issues that your husband needs to consider and discuss with his doctors. Many doctors have a preferred diversion which they are comfortable using.

> The ileal conduit is the simplest of the three to perform and therefore, less time is required to perform the operation. Also, many doctors are now addressing nerve sparing techniques that should be considered and discussed.

Hopefully, this information will provide you with some things to consider and discuss with your husband's doctors. One last suggestion, every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, there is a "real-time" chat where several of the users come together to share what's happening in their lives. It's a good group with many ideas and suggestions.

Please keep us posted on how things are going.


Ed K.

To answer your question about scar tissue and it being a contributor to invasive blc. I not never read any research indicating that this is the case but then I have far from read everything; I would ask your Urologists about this if it is a worry for you. What you may be seeing as far as the lining of the bladder looking so angry at this point could be from the BCG and not all scar tissue. Again I would ask my Urologist for clarification.