Hi Racerboy
I am 3 months out from an RC plus removal of my urethra. I had the ileal conduit diversion 'installed'. I'm a reasonably fit and active 69 year old, not over weight. I had 2 experienced surgeons working on me (and remember the urethra component adds some time to the work involved) but they completed the operation in 4 hours, a record for them I think. Despite this, recovery was rugged for the first 4 weeks, my heart went into AF (not unusual apparently after major surgery) and I had an infection in the wound. For pain management I had a 'block' aesthetic for 4 days, opioids and panadol for another 4 and then onto panadol on its own for a few weeks. I was in hospital for 12 days. It took me agers to get my bowels back to normal, they still need 'managing'. Three months out and I'm pretty much back to normal apart from some tiredness but not restricted in my activity apart from being careful about lifting. The bag changing comes easy after a few weeks and I get to stay in bed through the night as I'm connected to a night bag on the floor. That's a great bonus.
It's no picnic, it's rugged. The nurses are the ones who give you your life back and the stoma therapist becomes your best friend for a few weeks. I reckon you need very good home support.It's a new normal.
I guess at 76 you have to work out if the body image bonuses of the other type of diversions are worth the risk of much longer surgery, infections, the work involved in training the neo bladder and any leakage involved. I have had no leakage at all with the conduit.
For me it was not a hard decision. There is a lot of help on the various FB sites, surgeons are helpful but not as much as a candidate!
Jacko