Fighting Bladder Cancer

I have not posted here in quite some time. Life has taken enough twists and turns, so I thought a quick update is viable. Most recently I had been battling bladder cancer for about 6 years. Fortunately there had been no migration into my lymph nodes or anywhere else and the cancer stayed stationary in my bladder. Every so many months I would go in for surgery to have the recurrent tumor scraped away, only for the tumor to grow back again (hence the name "recurrent"). I went for immuno-therapy called BCG to see if this would cause a cure, but I was in the low percentile for whom the BCG would not work. When BCG fails, the only life saving and viable option is to have the bladder removed which is called a "cystectomy". This is a major surgery where the bladder is removed and them a stoma is created from a section of intestine and the ureters from the kidneys are connected placing the urine in the stoma, which drains constantly into a plastic bag called a urostomy that covers the stoma and this urostomy pouch becomes the new bladder. I had this surgery, which damn near killed me when the sutures used to reconnect my intestines became loose, leaking waste into my abdomen. I was rushed into emergency surgery which saved my life. I am doing fine now 2 and a half months or so later, but recovery was a bitch! As I mentioned, I do feel incredible now. The urostomy pouch, just like a real bladder, needs to be drained every 2 hours or thereabout. The pouch itself gets changed every 2-3 days, which now takes me all of 10 minutes to do. The Dr. gives me a 97% chance of being cancer free going forward, and this makes me happy because I can hopefully now plan on vacations instead of surgeries and maybe go see some things I have been wanting to see, like a trip back to the mitten and a stint in D.C. to visit The House of the Temple. I am glad to be alive and fortunate to have a happy life, and I am hopeful for 30 or more years of happiness and adventures.