Bladder removal surgery date set

Bladder Cancer
#1

Monday (Dec. 10th) my doctor called me at night and answered most of my questions, and scheduled my bladder removal surgery. I will go into Kaiser Hospital Monday, Jan. 14th and have the surgery Jan. 15. I am not looking foreward to this terrible surgery, but I do have some peace of mind knowing that the decision has been made and that the surgery is all set - no more waiting on dates or answers to questions.

I will donate blood for my surgery next week - no need to risk any additional problems from donated blood if the doctor needs to give me blood.

Meanwhile I am going to enjoy the time I have left. This weekend I go to Las Vegas to give money to the poor starving slot machines, and later will go to Disneyland.

I may live a normal life after the surgery or I may not, I don’t know. I did find an on-line group on Yahoo with men who have actually had the surgery and are doing OK, and I am getting a lot of support from them. I have also read a lot of horror stories about this surgery, but I am going to hope and pray that my experience is of the good variety (Well, good for me and bad, very bad for the cancer beast).

People can reach me at if they have info. God bless.

SHERIDAN

#2

Glad to hear that you’re feeling more settled about this now–the questions
and options can seem pretty overwhelming, I’m sure. Hoping for the best
possible outcome for you. Might bump into you at Disneyland if you’re going
to be there on Christmas day or the next couple days after that. Take care,
Sheridan!

-----Original Message-----
From: sheridan [mailto:bladder-cancer-cpt7107@lists.careplace.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:26 AM
To: crilly@dcn.org
Subject: [bladder-cancer] Bladder removal surgery date set

#3

Have more details and more appointments - 5 to be exact - for presurgery things and physical and some physical therapy for after the bladder removal surgery.

Now it is 19 days until my surgery and my life changing. One lady called me and she went through the surgery and is OK, but none of the guys have called as yet. And my doctor is on vacation until the 2nd and he said he would get me a couple of his patients to call.

It seems to be pretty true that men who have this surgery aren’t very open in talking about the surgery or the effects or their feelings. Maybe it is because they haven’t anything positive to say and don’t want to unloose a bunch of negativity on a person facing surgery.

I think if I get through the whole thing OK I will be glad to help others going through this bladder cancer thing. I do have compassion for my fellow cancer survivors and maybe my ordeal will be of help to someone.

I still hope some folks will email me at heidi90065@yahoo.com soon as they said they would and leave a phone number. I really would like to talk to someone, but then through most of the bladder cancer thing I have been alone (alone in the sense of no one-to-one sharing of bladder cancer survivors other than the internet).

SHERIDAN

#4

My surgery date is getting closer and closer. Now I have 5 days left to be a normal person. Thursday I go in to the hospital and find about some sort of exercises to use the new bladder. Then on Friday I see another doctor to discuss the alternative to using my urethra, should that be necessary, and I really don’t want to hear that (but I will go to the appointment, of course.)

At least I can have a meal on Sunday Jan. 13th and coffee on Jan. 14th and then into to the hospital and the “clean out” process for using my intestines for a new bladder.

I really hope I made the right decision. I think I did. I have talked with two guys who had the bladder removal surgery by my doctor and they are happy with the results, and I talked with one person on this site and with a lady in Pasadena. At least I know that someone can really go through this surgery and be OK, even though I have read a lot of negative stories - mostly from men.

I want to be in the group that is SUCCESSFUL and I intend to be! Of course, I still go through periods of depression and anxiety, but I guess that is to be expected with such a major surgery.

I still hope that a couple others who said they would contact me about their experience with the bladder removal surgery would contact me, however, if they had bad experiences I appreciate it if they don’t contact me and just let me try to be positive. Fortunately, I received only one email with advise on how to deal with the bladder removal surgery from someone who clearly has never had bladder cancer and I just said their advice wouldn’t be required.

SHERIDAN

#5

Hi i know long time no chat I see you time is getting near. I wish you good luck. I have been having medical issues because of my cancer i can only type with on hand going to the dr three times a week 3 hour round trip dr and it’s wearing me out. I know you will do as good as dave has done. I see your op for the interbladder sorry can’t remember the name. I know you will be happy with your decision. Dave is very happy with his and using the bag, he was back on his motorcycle after 5 weeks of surgery. We checked the kind your having and at his age all he wanted to go was what would get him back on the bike the fastest men lol. Again i know you will handle this what other choice do you have, you have changed your life around already to make a better life for yourself and you can’t go back now. Dave donated his blood to and it was to short of time and he didn’t bluild back so they had to give it right back to him not cause of the surgery so good luck on that area hoping you won’t need it. Don’t listen to those horror stories sometimes it’s the people do not doing what the dr tells them or they get a bad dr not checking him out first so you just do as your dr tells you nothing more or less and you will be back real soon.

#6

Hi, my name is jeannine and I am a bladder cancer survivor from 2001. And I hve been looking for someone to talk to.

#7

Okay… good to hear from you. I had my surgery to remove bladder tumors in
February of 2006.

On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 12:05 PM, jeannine <
bladder-cancer-cpt7107@lists.careplace.com> wrote: