Leigh's Journey With Bladder Cancer

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Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:58:28 +0100

Dear Leigh, I am in awe of the courage you have shown. You are a hero. To make the desision you have made at your age had to have been hard. Many would have put their head in the sand and not gone through with it. You replied to me that maybe you should get on with livivg, seems to me thats what you have been doing . You just need to get on with the funnnn part of living!!! Go for it! b.c. is not who or what you are, it is a condition ( not a nice one) that you now have to adjust to. Someday you will be able to relize that you are having fun and not thinking so much of the bc. At this time only my husband and grown kids know I have fluffy, because I had to tell them. fluffy is not who I am. If you can, do what made your heart sing before you got this,or find a new heart song, theres so much out there for you,if you have to take baby steps do it and tell us about them so we can smile and rejoice with you. love and prayers from Rocky - Rockyiss

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Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:13:57 +0100

Hello Joe,

Thanks for your message.

Waking up my intestines was a nightmare and I did try to walk a couple of times each day, not as much as you though :)

73 days in hospital for a RC .... you must have a lot of courage and determination to get through that withought going mad.

Glad to hear you are doing well now and have no problems with your neo bladder.

I have never tried the cheese from Wisconsin and I agree with you about the cheese in Holland which is pretty bland. My favourite dutch cheese is called Old Amsterdam which is a very mature cheese....very nice. I am from England originally and the UK has many fantastic cheeses :)

Take good care of yourself Joe.

Thanks again,
Leigh - Leigh

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Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:02:56 +0100

I think that battle is over and you won.

I had mine at 37, and nearly identical timeline events.
I did not have a morphine reaction, but did get yelled at when I took a walk outside one day...with the pump!
I would walk for 4-5 hours a day to try and wake up my intestines.
So it was July, in fact it was my birthday, so I wanted to go outside.
I'd often leave the ward, and the floor and go roaming around the hospital.
When the security guard brought me back to the floor, my nurse said that I should not go outside with $5,000 worth of morphine. It wasn't a really safe thing to do.
Oooops!

I also had a post surgical infection, which wound up aggravating my appendix. And that kept feeding the infection.
So I wound up spending 73 days in the hospital, in a five month period; showing up every two weeks or so.
They got so used to me, they kept the same room for me, I had my own name tag on one of the CAT scanners, everyone in the hospital knew my first name, I was wondering why I was paying rent on my apartment!
...my surgeon was having the nightmares about me.
They they opened me up and took the appendix and made sure my insides were clean.
My appendectomy scar runs from my navel to my hip!
Stranger things have happened.

Like you, I am fine with my neobladder.
It wasn't hard to adapt to having it, as you seem to have done very well.

Being from Wisconsin, ...we do have better cheese than you Dutch guys.
But you guys make the best chocolate. Those Swiss are amateurs.

Take care and have the time of your life...for the rest of your life!
Joe

- Joe M