Today I talked to the surgeon who will do the operation & I came away a little cheered. I had read about bladder reconstruction as an alternative to a stoma on the Cancer Research UK website about a week ago & had rejected it as not for me but, although I'm by no means sold on the idea, I'm not ruling it out as yet. After all, a radical removal of the bladder with a stoma bag for the rest of my life isn’t an attractive option either.
http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=3169
All inall I think I do have more options as I learn more and talk to the experts.
He agreed that chemotherapy could improve the 50% five-year survival rate by 5% which is worthwhile and acknowledged that in some cases it might make radiation therapy an alternative to surgery. After all, even if radiation therapy doesn't do the job surgery is still there as the last possible treatment so nothing is lost.
Fiona, the MacMillan nurse I met a couple of weeks ago, was also present and she is going to put me in touch with their specialist stoma nurses and somebody who has been through all this stuff before me. My wife, Ann, definitely needs some support because at the moment she feels like a helpless passenger on a train heading at full speed for the buffers.
What I need now is for the Christie to get their fingers out, carry out the kidney function test & get chemo started.
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