Need help in Wayne's World

I am sorry Pat I didn't mean to sound confrontational. I am just really passionate about this, I may come across that way sometimes...Sorry.

Karen

Hi Wayne,
I have been following your posts and saying prayers you find the answers you need to make your choices. I was very much like that when I was dx'd in late Jan with T2 grade 3. It was only 6 weeks from dx to RC/neobladder but final pathology called it to be T3 - thru the bladder wall. So I did 4 months chemo after that. I just want to encourage you to follow thru with treatment and the "gut feeling" of what you need to do. We'll be here to help you get thru it God Bless, Holly

Wayne there is none of us here that wanted this cancer and it definitely sucks. Now there are all kinds of folks on this board some with superficial cancer, others with invassive cancer, and then the ones with metastatic cancer. The thing is I had an invassive tumor T2 G3 as I told you and then I had to make my decisions. When I came home on 1/6/07 after seeing the Urologist I went to I called my Primary Dr. and got a referral for Dr. Wein up at the Univ of Penn. I was not satisfied with the Urologist I saw plus I did not care for the hospital he worked out of. I wanted to go to the best hospital for me and get the best care I could get and I chose the Univ of Penn.

I did see you did your homework that the cancer can always come back if you leave the bladder in especially after it has hit the muscle wall. Now I didn't wanna get my bladder out and there are alot of things I didn't wanna do but i had no choice if i wanted to live. This is the last post I am making on this topic I have the Indiana Pouch as a diversion and doing the pre-op chemo and then the surgery I got lucky and repeating I am cancer free as of now. So you got the chemo done and all you need now is to do the RC so just keep your surgery date and be done with it and it will be all over before you know it. Good Luck, Joe

Wayne,
Go with that "gut feeling". I know this is a very hard decision to make and I certainly wish you the best.
Please keep us posted.
Clara

Wayne,

I know that is hard to think of other people being worse off than you in situations like this, but we (my husband and I) were right in your position in Aug. Where to go, what to expect, chemo before RC, RC before chemo, penial implants, neo bladders,nerve sparing surgery etc.... All of it seemed overwhelming...I would love to have those choices to make now. My husband had another CT Scan, and then a bone scan prior to treatment. The discovered that the cancer had metastized to the bone, and now there are no choices. He is doing Chemo with the slim chance that it will give him an extra 6 mos to a year. He is only 47, and we have young children too. Beleive me when I say that you will miss the bladder alot less then you will miss the cancer!

Good Luck to you,
Karen

Hi Karen

Yes as you have mentioned i will be going out of NC for surgery. I guess i have a fair amount of knowledge about BC due to reading the stories of the wonderful people here on this forum. I have talked with many doctors,read books,web pages,etc. It is just very frustrating because i am person who likes to fix things and with BC it's hard to determine the amount of damage and what should be done to fix it. There is talk of pathology reports being incorrect(yes for the better or worse)and 3 different hospitals give almost the exact same reports. They would not look at my slides with out the original report. If they are experienced professionals in their field they should be able to give their independant opinion(If not what is really the purpose of a second opinion).Depending on that path report the doctor then gives his recomendation. Mine was mussle invasive so best i have a RC research shows. Even though they can not find cancer right now it might still be there or could return so i need RC. I remember reading some where about the millions of dollars spent each year on cancer and we have the same treatment we had 50 years ago Radiation,and chemo. Yes both have improved but still radiation,and chemo. (Frustrating) Just me venting a little. Thanks for posting Karen

Wayne in NC