Todd's Journey

First the bad news - in my stupidity, and feeling a bit better, I tried going out to drive my lawn tractor with the snow blower on it on Tuesday to clear the snow from the lane. I didn't really think much about it being too labour intensive, but apparently just the lifting of my blower, and the pushing of the pedals, and maybe the position I sat in for an hour, was enough to pull one of abdominal muscles.

I have to try and remember that my muscles have not been actively used for almost 7 months now, so the easiest of tasks may be a bit of a strain for them. Anyhow, I will just have to rest more and let the abdominal muscle heal up again.

As for my next steps in my cancer treatment, I will begin immunotherapy the first week of January. Bladder cancer cells have a specific protein marker on them that hides the fact they are cancer cells. This marker fools my own immune system into thinking the cancer cells are normal cells. What the immunotherapy will do is remove that specific protein marker on the cancer cells allowing my immune system to hopefully start attacking those cells, therefore keeping the cancer at bay (stop it from growing or spreading). Immunotherapy, if successful, can continue to work for a very long time.

The immunotherapy will be administered by intraveneous drip every two weeks for as long as the immunotherapy keeps working. After several years, if the immunotherapy is still working, they may take me off of it, and simply follow up with scans every so often.

The immunotherapy is likely to cause me fatigue again, but not nearly as significant as the chemotherapy did. It is not expected to make me nauseaus or sick to my stomach.

I will have to have CT scans done every three months now to ensure the cancer isn't returning or growing again.

If, for some reason, the immunotherapy does not work out, or I don't tolerate the immunotherapy drug very well, there are other medication options they can try.

It definetly is no fun knowing I have to go every two weeks for treatment for a long time to come, but I need to do it to keep my cancer under control, and to allow me to live a nice, as close to normal, life again.

Hi Everyone.

I am scheduled for a cystoscopy on January 2nd under anesthesia in order for my urological oncologist, Dr. Morash to take a good look at the inside of my bladder.

He is going to assess whether or not I need to keep the nephrostomy tubes, or if ureteral stents could be put in from below to help the flow of fluid from my kidneys to my bladder.

It is possible that the chemo shrunk the tumors that were originally blocking the flow into my bladder that I will no longer need the nephrostomy tubes or a stent.

All will be figured out on January 2nd. Either I will come home with no neph tubes, or will have to keep wearing them for a while.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Here is the latest update on my cancer journey. I apologize for being so emotional.

Hi Everyone,

My urological oncologist, Dr. Morash, is booking me in for a day proocedure on January 2nd, where he is going to look at the inside of my bladder and possibly place stents in my ureters in order to get rid of the nephrostomy tubes and bags.

This would be so nice for me, as the neph tubes are truly very restrictive and inconvenient. Having the tubes removed will allow me to return to much more normal activity and give me great mobility in my daily life.

So, all in all it looks I may be started off the new year NEPH TUBE FREE!!!! :o)

My abdominal scan has come back showing very positive signs of improvement. There was no further spread of the cancer to the abdominal region. Reproductive system, kidneys, pancreas, and ureters all looked good with no signs of abnormalities. The only comment on my bladder was that it was contracted, however that would be expected since there is little urine in my bladder at the moment.

My cancer will never be "cured" as it had already spread beyond the bladder, however it can be controlled and kept from growing and spreading. That ultimately is the goal for long term living with cancer.

The recommended course of action for me now is to receive immunotherapy which will teach my own immune system to keep attacking the cancer so it is kept under control. That's the best we could have asked for at this point.

Overall the results are very positive in terms of controlling my cancer. Now we move to a phase of keeping it under control.

I will have a consult with Dr. Macrae (the radiology oncologist) to see if any radiation is needed or required now.

That's the results update. Look at is as positive for sure. Just got to keep my cancer in check now.

Hello everyone,

We have finally received the results of my CT scans. There were two scans done. One on my chest (to review the progress of the bladder cancer cells that had spread to my lungs), and one on my abdomen (to review the bladder cancer progression or recession).

I have received the first of the two scans which was the chest and lungs scan. The CT scan showed that most of the detected nodules prior to chemotherapy are almost undetectable now, and the larger nodules have shrunk considerably in size. There were no further indications of spread, nor were there any additional spread through the lymph node system. The report indicated that there were no new nodes of concern. This indicated that I responded well to the chemo treatment as it related to the cancer in my chest.

The only negatives detected on the report was calcification of my coronary artery, and a very small hiatus hernia. Both are treatable and I suspect that the doctors will be referring me to further doctors to deal with those issues.

It's been 12 days since my chemotherapy ended. I am still awaiting the results of my latest CT scans to determine what, if anything, the chemo has done to the cancer.

I am slowly starting to feel a bit better, and less fatigued. Every day I get a little bit more energy back, and my requirement to nap during the day has lessened. At night now, I am almost entirely off my sleep aids, and getting back to somewhat of a normal sleep pattern.

The only two issues I continue to deal with are; my nephrostomy tubes, and my bladder infections.

As for the nephrostomy tubes, they really are an inconvenience of having to cart around collection bags on each side of my body. It really does restrict my mobility somewhat. In addition, while the tubes do remove the majority of urine from my kidneys, it leaves very small amounts going into my bladder. This may sound like a minor issue, but I just want to get back to urininating normal amounts of fluid.

I still suffer a bit of PTSD from the days where I was retaining and passing very small amounts of urine, so now when I only pass small amounts (due to the nephrostomy tubes) I sometimes get anxious and worried again. It is very difficult for me to overcome the past traumatic experiences from June. The smallest issue can prompt me to suffer mental anxiety.

I have finally stopped taking my anti-anxiety medication as it wasn't something I wanted to be on for a long time. Perhaps that is why I may still have some anxiety but I will overcome that. I await the moment that Dr. Morash tells me I can get rid of the neph tubes.

As for the bladder infections, Dr. Morash started me on a daily dose of antibiotic as a strategy to prevent further bladder infections before they start. The first antibiotic that he prescribed me makes me quite ill, so he switched me to a new antibiotic today.

Around the homefront, we finally got all our Christmas decorations and tree up for the year. We finished our Christmas shopping (thanks to Amazon), and just have to wrap them up now.

Anyhow that's the update for now. The official discussion with my oncologist will be this Thursday, so we will definitely know what's next by the end of the week.

Hi Everyone,

It looks like the results of my CT scans won't be quite ready for the Monday video update, so I will delay that update until later next week when we have official results. I will post the video update on Friday so that I can also update you on the go forward cancer treatment plan.

As for my current health, I am anemic again, so the fast fatigue comes on pretty much anytime I do anything. I will have to wait for my hemoglobin numbers to increase on their own for the next few weeks before the fatigue lessens.

I have had a few bouts of vomiting mostly related to the new antibiotic medication I am taking. I have found if I take it with food it has less of an impact on me, so have started doing that.

That's the update for now.