Transitional and Squamous Cell Bladder C

On 12/3/2007 Larue6 wrote:

Hi,

Somehow your message back to me was deleted. Pls reply back. I got good and bad news last week. I am doing fine ,but my husband's chrondrosarcoma in his pelvis has spread to his lungs. Two spots; one in each lung.He is getting surgery Dec 13 to remove them. This is not good. This cancer is very aggressive and this has changed our life AGAIN!!!! You just can't make plans when you have cancer. CANCER loves to take control. How much longer do you have to wait for your new Doctor appt? Best wihes, Keep praying

Hi again,

I'm glad you wrote again. You are so right; cancer takes control of our lives. We just finished the 3rd of 4 chemotherapies and he is doing well.  The urologist appointment is on the 18th.

I am so sorry to hear about your husband. How is the drive to the hospital? I could drive the route with my eyes closed.  I have to push myself to focus on the traffic when we leave the doctor. Are you able to stay during his procedure and recovery time? I hate the waiting room; the chairs seem dirty and it reeks of cigarette smoke even though no one smokes in there anymore. I realize that hating the waiting room is really misplaced emotions about the cancer.

Is your husband having difficulty breathing? Do you know what to expect after the surgery? 

I'm so glad that you had good news about you. Thanks for keeping in touch.

On 12/4/2007 elikapeka wrote:

 

On 12/3/2007 Larue6 wrote:

Hi,

Somehow your message back to me was deleted. Pls reply back. I got good and bad news last week. I am doing fine ,but my husband's chrondrosarcoma in his pelvis has spread to his lungs. Two spots; one in each lung.He is getting surgery Dec 13 to remove them. This is not good. This cancer is very aggressive and this has changed our life AGAIN!!!! You just can't make plans when you have cancer. CANCER loves to take control. How much longer do you have to wait for your new Doctor appt? Best wihes, Keep praying

Hi again,

I'm glad you wrote again. You are so right; cancer takes control of our lives. We just finished the 3rd of 4 chemotherapies and he is doing well.  The urologist appointment is on the 18th.

I am so sorry to hear about your husband. How is the drive to the hospital? I could drive the route with my eyes closed.  I have to push myself to focus on the traffic when we leave the doctor. Are you able to stay during his procedure and recovery time? I hate the waiting room; the chairs seem dirty and it reeks of cigarette smoke even though no one smokes in there anymore. I realize that hating the waiting room is really misplaced emotions about the cancer.

Is your husband having difficulty breathing? Do you know what to expect after the surgery? 

I'm so glad that you had good news about you. Thanks for keeping in touch.

Hi, I have been in Gainesville at Shands Hospital for 1 month now. My husband's cancer came back in his pelvis area again. It was 6 tumors in 1. Size of a football.This time they took his leg and one testical. He ended up with 3 surgerys.  The incision wasn't healing and it turned black so it needed to get repaired. Now he has formed a blood clot in his arm and due to the surgery has no bowel control.Problems after problems. The doctors said they are moving him to Rehab for mental reasons. No one does well when they are in hospital so long. After surgery his intestines wouldn't work, he didn't eat for 3 weeks. He is so weak and thin.I don't know if he can fight much more.......He still has his other lung to deal with.Cancer is no fun. I am still getting my treatments and so far so good.. The ride to hospital is 105 miles one way and I stay in a motel. My husbands surgery was 4 hours with uologist and 12 hours with the orthopedic surgeon. They call me when he is done and I usually wait in motel. It's only 2 miles away.The doctor said only 10% of patients with this type of cancer live past 2 years from the time they are diagnosed. For him, that's September 2008. This last surgery was only for comfort and he won't do anymore hip surgerys on Dan.There is nothing else he can remove.Not a good report.I just hope he gets a few good months before another issue arises. Well you take care and hang in there. Sounds like you have better chances . At least I hope so

LaRue

Hi LaRue,

So sorry! I just found your 2/27 reply this morning, 3/3/08. Somehow my email decided that the CancerCompass site was spam so the message went to a spam file instead of the inbox. That won't happen again.

I am heartsick to hear about your husband. If he is on morphine, that's good for the pain but it made my husband irrational and cranky. He was impatient with everyone and once he got onto percocet he was nicer. LaRue, I hope there are people who are supporting you at this time. We are very private people and Phil didn't want visitors nor for anyone to know, but you can only keep people who love you away for so long. I imagine you are beyond exhausted.  

I'm at home with my husbandwho was released last Friday from the hospital after a 3 week stay. He had the radical cystectomy surgery where his bladder, prostate, and lymph nodes were removed and a new bladder was created. He went through the surgery just fine but his digestive tract took some time to start working again. He had terrible diarrhea and I was glad to be there to help him. He was going crazy to get out of there too. We had all good news; the chemotherapy killed all the cancer cells. He had a 20% chance of living to 5 years after diagnosis.  I am just exhausted even though we had good news. I think the last 7 months have sucked the wind out of my sails.  Not to mention but a year ago this time he told me he wanted a divorce; I felt like some body snatcher had moved into him. It has been a wretched year. Well the cancer sure put his old self back into him. It brought us back together and I pray we stay that way.

It's sure a relief to safely vent with someone who understands this insanity. You can't tell friends or family about the horrors of living with cancer.

My husband is learning to use a catheter to remove the urine from his new bladder. I am helping by "irrigating" flushing out the area using saline and injecting it into the cather. It is nothing I ever imagined I would be called upon to do but it has to be done and it is all ultimately good.

LaRue is there anything I can do for you from so far away? Please say so, I am thinking of you and your husband.

later,

Elizabeth