I’ve been nagged over the years by a suspicion my heart was in danger of crashing. That very concern helped drive me to the doctor for a checkup in August. My heart passed various tests with flying colors, but there was another problem. As it turns out, I had a tumor in my bladder.
Cancer is something I never really considered as a threat, but in a few minutes one afternoon in early October, I went from thinking I was dealing with another kidney stone to facing cancer.
Let me address the big question quickly. There are still some questions remaining, but we hope the entire tumor was removed a couple of weeks ago. It seems likely I’ll go through the surgery again, but the jury’s still out on that. Once we’re confident all of it is gone, what follows is a regimen of treatments (to stifle further growths) and regular checkups designed to catch new tumors in the earliest stages. The survival rate for bladder cancer caught at this stage is very high.
Why am I telling you this? Because there were signs that should have alerted me to a possible problem, but I did not follow up on them because I thought I knew what was going on. I just knew in my heart I had a kidney stone.
My simple message: If you see blood in your urine, get it checked out.
If you know someone who might benefit from following my story, I have a page where I’m writing about it. The idea is to motivate to action and to alleviate concerns by explaining the process. You’ll find it at http://www.squidoo.com/bladder-cancer-and-me.
One final thought: I know many of you will feel you should write a quick note to me, and that’s fine. But more importantly, share with your friends the warning I’m sounding.
