Cancer Support

... and wasn't of a kind that would respond to chemo or radiation. So right to surgery. I was offered the three options.

1. Save as much bladder as possible and use a catheter - I'm as uncomfortable with a catheter as you, it was the deal breaker.
2. Remove the bladder, build a pouch from skin and implant it and put a cap on it and urinate with a syringe. Uh uh. Nope.
3. Remove the bladder, the prostate, the tubes from the kidneys and harvest colon (which was a bit problematic because my lower colon had been removed previously) and replace the tubes with the colon harvest, create a stoma to vent urine into a bag.

The partial colon resection was extremely rough, but the bladder surgery was above and beyond.

I was fortunate. My socialist health care system has taken care of everything, timely, with care, and cutting no corners.

I am fortunate. Life is good. The learning curve with the bag has had it's embarrassments, but has been quite tolerable. I had trouble for a few months with feeling of having been mutilated. But that passed. I've had a bit of pleasure in showing young doctors the stoma when they'd never seen one in real life, the bag being of a higher capacity than the the badder has been convenient, and with the leg bag I can drive a long time with no stops.

More importantly: I am alive.