A week of highs and lows

02 July 2017

I am beginning this post on Sunday, July 2^nd, with plans to add to it during the next ten days and post it sometime after July 10^th.

For the past couple of years, on and off, I have had some urinary tract problems. I first saw a urologist back in 2015 and she thought it was a urinary tract infection and prescribed antibiotics. It improved for a while, but since then the symptoms, including blood in my urine, have come and gone. Each time I would see the urologist, and at the time of my annual gynecologic exam, the bleeding had stopped so was not observed. Recently, having more routinely observed blood in my urine, I decided it was time to try to address it and returned to the urologist. At this point she suggested we do some further testing. Meanwhile, she prescribed a medication to help the symptoms. The medication, if anything, made the symptoms worse, and despite the busy summer ahead I felt I had to once and for all figure out what was going on.

Now, actually observing blood in my urine, she encouraged me to pursue a diagnosis but I still put it off a bit, hoping it could wait until all the grandchildren had come and gone. But the symptoms were relentless and I finally decided to go in and have the cystoscopy, all the while thinking that this would simply enable her to prescribe appropriate treatment.

I had suggested Barry just drop me off and wait in his office for me to call when I was done. But within seconds after inserting the scope she told me the shocking news that I have bladder cancer. No question. I had her call Barry and he came right over.

03 July 2017

We are trying to keep busy, so in a short while Eliana will be arriving for her week with us. We are hoping this will go well, but Simmie and Ronen recognize that we may need to call on them to take her home later this week rather than waiting for next Sunday.

We have tickets for a Yankees game tomorrow and for the Broadway show “School of Rock” on Wednesday, and I am hoping I can get through those.

Meanwhile, this morning we went over to the Botanical Gardens for a bit. We were there for under two hours and I had to use the restroom twice.

06 July 2017

It has been a busy few days with Eliana. All in all I think it was a good decision to keep our plans intact. If she were not with us I think I would just be glued to my bed. At the end of the day going out and trying to have fun must be the better option, despite the now almost constant physical discomfort and the need to plan bathroom visits.

“School of Rock” was awesome!

This morning we are going back into the City. Barry is going to take Eliana to see the third installment of the “Despicable Me” movies while I go for my pre-op physical. Then we plan to head over to the Museum of Natural History for the afternoon. Tomorrow we are heading over to a place called New Roc City, a video arcade extraordinaire that looks like it has Eliana’s name written all over it!

10 July 2017

The remainder of our week with Eliana went well. She loved New Roc City. She and Barry, with a little help from me, spent six hours on Shabbat afternoon building a huge Lego kit we had bought for her. On Sunday we met Simmie in Mystic and returned home.

My surgery was scheduled for 8 am this morning, and we were told to arrive by 6. I’m going to spare you all the details, but the main hitch was that after discussions with my pulmonologist it was decided that this needed to be done under local (spinal) anesthetic if at all possible. It was, thankfully, possible, but definitely not a day at the beach. The doctor believes they got it all, but final judgement is pending the full pathology report. So now I am home dealing with the mess, not to mention discomfort, of bladder surgery. They had to leave in a catheter which will hopefully be removed on Friday.

I plan to lay pretty low this week. At some point, I will hopefully feel up to filling in the rest about our week with Eliana.

Be well, all.

Love,

Rebecca