Bladder removal

I am a 72 year old female.  I have bladder cancer, and have been told that I need to have the bladder removed.  I have taken treatments for about 3 years now and it has come to this.  The treatments haven't stopped the cancer.  The doc says now that it is superficial in the bladder and hasn't spread to the muscle wall.

Could someone that has been through the bladder removal give me some insight on what to expect aftere the surgery, the kind of bag, etc, that works, how long does it take to get back to normal activity, any complications!  I am stresssing over it all.  I do what to live to see my grandchildren grow up, and I no if I don't have it done that I will die from cancer that will spread from the bladder.  If I have the bladder removed, Prayerfully, I could be cancer free.

Thanks in advance,

Sue 

I am a 62 year old male and had my bladder removed when I was 57. I do not regret my decission and am very happy with my quality of life. To date I am cancer free.

Ask your Dr. if you qualify for a Neobladder. This entails actually making a bladder from a part of your intestines. They hook you up and you urinate as you did before by using the external sphincter muscles. You learn how to use it and develope it by doing Kegl excercises.

 The recovery takes a while. You will loose weight and apetite but it all comes back thankfully. My surgery took approximately 7 hours and I was told it took about one month of recovery for every hour of surgery. in my case it was close to that.

Superficial bladder TCC cancer is normally controlled if coantained within the bladder so you should be OK. I used to be a smoker and if you where you can thanl as I can cigarettes for the condition. Most bladder cancers arise from that.

I had my surgery at USC Norris Cancer Jospital in California and am very satisfied with the results. i am sure there are many places where they can do the surgery. I would make sure I go to a top Cancer Center that does enough of them so that the expertise and dexterity are at a higher level

If I can helo further let me know. Good luck. have faith and remember the sunn will come out tomorrow

Luis from Texas

Hi Annie Sue,

It's been 4 years since I had my bladder removed, and I also had the neo-bladder done. My cancer was discovered while I was in 41 and the surgery was done when I was 43.

The recovery was a little slow, but I'm a pretty impatient patient :)

The possibility of living with a bag was daunting, but I sure don't miss the cystoscopies! I go in every 6 months for a CAT scan and XRays, but things have been going very well.

My only issues are dietary; they told me it would take about 2 years for my intestines to stop complaining about a piece being removed (for the neo- bladder), but things have not improved. I'm on a meat and potatoes diet now that is quite boring, but as a friend said to me, "at least you're on the right side of the grass".

Good luck.