Not sure how to begin this so I will just copy & paste from the storybook contribution that I have just updated. Dad was was down to have R/C yesterday.
were do I begin, Mum & Dad made the 3 hour journey on Monday so that dad could begin the bowel prep on Tue, Fasting from Mon night, he began the bowel prep on tue, tue came & went, up early and of to the hospital for a 7am start. My sister & I got on the road around 4am & arrived just after 7am, he hadnt gone anywhere yet so we were able to see him before he went in. They called him in & both mum & he went in. Whilst in the bed waiting the anathesist came in & said, so your in for your bi-op, mum said know I think its a little more serious than that, he said no your in for a bi-op. He then went on to say the dr will explain further. Dr came around & said he was from the UK (been in Aust 1 week) & he had looked at all Dads notes last night & thought that rather than do the r/c he would do another bi-op at the same site as the last one, (about 5 weeks ago) to see if there was any tumor left behind, & possibly offer Dad bcg treatment, dependant on the results from bi-op. Mum came out to tell us girls what was happening, (or not happening) we could not belive it, we wanted some answers & asked to speak to someone. The resident uro couldnt give us an explaination & he said he would try & get the surgern to speak to us, He did.
Told us that rc was a very serious op (we knew) & that he wasnt convinced that the urita had tumor & that it may have been scare tissue showing up on ct scan. Explained there was 2 types of bladder cancer (dad has had both)& he wanted to be sure what they were dealing with & that he maybe able to offer BCG as another treatment option.
They said that Dad would proberly go home later that Day, they took him of to theatre, when he came out thay said that he would have to stay in at least overnight as he had a cath in.
We went back in later and Dad said that the res uro had been in to see him & that the Australia dr was away ( the one that wanted to take out the bladder) & the uk dr wanted to maybe try a different option (BCG) before doing r/c, dependant on path.
Well today when we went in to see Dad, the uk Dr came to see us.
He said that he will need to stay in till at least Sat as he has gone quite deep, there was more tumor in the same area & into the L urita, he chopped it away, & the area is quite thin (as you would imagine after 30 odd cysto & turb's) the cath needs to stay in to allow some healing.
Awaiting path results, see him in about 2 weeks & go from there.
As you all can well imagine, we are at our wits end, this emotional roller coaster is set to continue for some time.
I do realise the r/c was not the answer to all our prayers, but we were hopeful it would increase his time & quaility of life. We knew it was a big thing & had come to terms with this, mum & dad even had there bathroom renovated to put a toliet in.
I am just so emotionally drained right now & truly believe that we will be going down this road again (r/c)in the not so distant future. I will try & keep you updated.
Your thoughts would be apprechated.
Cathy.
