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@annepark

Hello Jo.

I've been advised that I will need a radical cystectomy. I'm confused about deciding if I should have the surgery now, before chemotherapy or have chemotherapy after the radical cystectomy. Could you possibly share what you decided to do?

Thanks.

Lesley

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Replies to "Hello Jo. I've been advised that I will need a radical cystectomy. I'm confused about deciding..."

I was 51 when diagnosed with bladder cancer last November. I had 4 tumors where 3 were removed on December 20th during TURBT surgery but I still had one that had already grown into my bladder wall, which eventually ended growing outside my bladder wall. Anyways, I did not have any chemo or radiation prior to the RC because the type of bladder cancer I had didn't respond to either of those. So February 19th I had surgery and now have a neobladder. Luckily I didn't have to wait any longer as the tumor was growing very fast and ended up being 12cm. They also removed my uterus and 24 lymph nodes which only 1 was positive. I had a catheter in for 4 weeks, it was removed on March 20th. You have a voiding schedule to keep up with afterwards as you have to train your new bladder and alot of work to tighten your pelvic floor muscles, but in the end I am glad I went this route rather than with a Stoma. I started immunotherapy on April 3rd for 1 year as the cancer was high-grade/ aggressive, so hopefully no new cancer cells decide to form.