Last fall I wrote about my bladder cancer. I feel like it is time for an update. Maybe some others can be helped by this. You may remember that I did cancer research myself so I see it from a number of angles. Later this month I am going for my fourth surgery.
Let me fill you in. The first surgery was in September and was complicated by an enlarged prostate that bled and made the first round end before completion due to bleeding. The enlarged prostate also caused me to shut down and I walked around with a catheter in me for some time. The second surgery was a combination of getting the rest of the cancer and a "roto-rooter" job on the prostate to get rid of the catheter.
The third round of surgery was in February after it was determined that the cancer came back. That brings us to today. Continue on and I'll finish this installment.
I was scheduled to be scoped last month but it seems my doctor has his own problems with cancer so it had to be cancelled. I had some trouble finding a new doctor but finally did. He scoped my last week and let me watch. It is weird looking inside your own urinary tract even for a scientist.
What I saw was not nice. Three little cauliflower like growths, one ugly sea urchin like stone and a prostate still blocking the channel too much. So we go do it again. From what I have learned about this cancer, which is a low grade form, thankfully, is that it comes back about 60% of the time. Ironically I have a paper published of a model where the cancer, in this case prostate, comes back like this with similar frequency.
Today I had my EKG, chest x-ray, urinalysis, and left a blood sample. Hopefully they will all be OK and we go ahead in a few weeks.
A month of taking it easy and I should be back to my diet and exercise routine again. I am getting to be a pro, right?
Actually, I am handling it fairly well but am admittedly depressed now and then. Knowing what I do (and don't) about cancer I am not able to just sit back and take it as it comes. The idea that this is a "disease" even bothers me since it happens so often and arises from your own cells. The intelligent design people have to explain why the design of our body is so lacking in in intelligence. But hey, I am in my 79th year and won't live forever. My philosophy is that one of these days I don't wake up and my existence will be ended. I can deal with that. After all I am a biologist.
I have written in the past about my views on cancer as a business and the lack of attention to prevention for that reason. I won't go into that again. My last diary on this harked back to Norman Mailer's essays in the 1960s linking cancer to plastic both symbolically and with some predictive value as well.
I also have written about cancer and our life style and our book goes into the lifestyle thing in great depth. So I share these thoughts with out and apologize for just throwing this out on a Monday night.
6:26 PM PT: Thanks for the rec list. Two in one night....wow!