Yesterdays News

Well, a last minute change happened yesterday and the Hubby did not come home as planned. His surgery was supposed to last right around 1 hour and 2 1/2 hours later I knew it could not be good news and I was right. The surgery was to remove 2-3 tumors that were seen during a cystoscopy in November. At that time Hubby had no insurance and the bills at Moffitt totalled right around the $20,000.00 mark from previous surgeries and procedures so we applied for financial aid through Moffitt. During the holidays our paperwork was somehow"misplaced" and we didnt find out until February. We re-applied then and it was just approved at 100% payment 2 weeks ago, so his surgery was pushed to the front since it had been so long. When his Dr. went in his bladder he said the entire inside of his bladder was covered in tumors and in all he lasered out tumors that added up to the size of a grapefruit. He said Hubbys CT scan did not show any tumors or growths on the outside of the bladder which he was pleased about, and he said the tumors that were removed we not deep in the muscle which he was also pleased about. He was really concerned at the amount of the time it took these tumors to take over, and in the 7 or 8 years we have been with this Dr. I have never heard him use the word concerned which really made me uneasy. He also used the actual word cancer which scared the shit out of me. This decade of dealing I have always told myself it wasnt real cancer, so it would be ok. I always rationalized it in my mind that the kind of cancer that kills is the malignant kind, which my Hubby didnt have so its all good. In 1998 when this all started Hubbys tumors were actually malignant cancerous tumors in his bladder, and from then until just today all tumors that were removed in other surgeries were benign, superficial growth tumors, and that is a HUGE difference! The tumors today were sent off to the pathologist to determine if they are the superficial growth tumors we are used to, or the the other cancer kind that we really really dont want. The results should be back in 3 - 10 days, but the nurse said usually they are back within 3-5 days. The Dr. also did say some news I was glad to hear, but then followed by some more news I didnt want to hear. The good news, after this surgery the Dr. said he is leaning more towards NOT doing a bladder replacement, after the last 2 surgeries he had said he was only going to do this a few more times before he wanted to just replace his whole bladder. Right after this, he said that if the pathology reports come back as cancer we would discuss our options further, but that he would more than likely want to start some rounds of chemo and radiation since that path has never been taken and see what happened. Hubby has been lucky that he has never had to do any of these treatments, and I hope he stays that way. So, with all the cutting inside his bladder he was still bleeding pretty bad so they decided to keep him over night. His catheter got clogged with blood clots 4 times over the evening because he was bleeding so much. Just the thought makes me cringe! I didnt tell the Hubby all the details because he was still to out of it to really comprehend it all, and I knew it would just scare him. I didnt leave the hospital until 9pm, and he didnt want me to leave him but I just couldnt do it. Hubby said this morning that the Dr. came in to check on him and there was still way to much blood so he may be able to come home tonight at the earliest. I dont recall many people checking out at night so Im assuming he will more than likely stay again tonight. I hope these results come back quickly and they hold positive news for us!