Bladder Cancer

[crakerjac]

Hello,
After 10 years of dealing with bladder cancer without surgery, it now looks like my 85-year-old father needs to have surgery to remove the bladder and prostate. We are very concerned about his quality of life post surgery. He is in relatively good health for 85. If he can have the surgery, he will have an external bag. Does anyone have expereices to share? Tips? Advice? Suggestions?
Thank you!

[dineshsingh]

yes my uncle has phased same problem like your father thats why i can say after surgery he will get some problem but after some time he will recover automatically.

[crakerjac]

Thank you for your note. What kind of complications did your uncle have? I hope that he is doing well in his recovery.

[daughter#2]

I'm sorry to hear about your daddy. It's been a while since your post so i guess he must've had his surgery. How are u, your dad and your family. My dad was dx with bladder cancer a few days ago so i am not much use to you.

[nordy]

Please let me know how he is doing. My mom is facing the same thing. She's a little younger -- late 70s.

[crakerjac]

Hi there,

First and foremost, I'm really sorry that you are having to face this. It is not easy. I'm glad that your mom has a child who cares so much. My dad had his surgery on April 21 and technically, it went well. They removed 85 surrounding lymphnodes, but 2 were positive, and last week he decided not to go through chemo. So now we will wait and see. He has a 50/50 chance of cancer resurfacing in some way, shape, or form. The chemo would have only imporved his oddby 5 to 15%. It was a quality of life issue for him. He has had a really hard time getting his strength back. What kind of surgery is your mom going to have? Is she going to have an external bladder? Is she in good health now? What city does she live in? The more you tell me, the better I can target my advice to you. I'll help in any way I can.

[nordy]

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this, too. I'm glad your dad did well. You say the chances of it recurring are 50/50. Is that because it had spread to lymph nodes? I'm praying that we catch it before then, but you never know. My mom is in Florida. I'm in North Carolina. I'm thinking that I need to move her up here. Whether she has surgery or not, I'm starting to think that this is a ticking time bomb. She initially was told that people can live a long time with this, but I suspect that was before they found the aggressive kind of cancer. She doesn't tell me much, which I suspect means that she's not asking the doctor very much. So I'm going to meet with the doctor in Aug. She is in great health now. You'd never know she had cancer. So it's hard to think about surgery. I don't know what kind of surgery they would do, other than remove her bladder. As I said, she hasn't gotten a lot of info. Thanks for your kind words and support.