cystoscopy Archives

It is a great pleasure to post positive health results in my blog. Not all is doom and gloom. This time I had a good, clean cystoscopy.

Cystoscopy is endoscopy of the urinary bladder via the urethra. It is carried out with a cystoscope. – Wikipedia

What that means is they insert a camera into your bladder via the urethra.

I had my first bladder cancer check since cancer was removed last September. The check mostly revolves around the cystoscopy. This showed no cancer!

This is the first time in about 3 and a half years that I have not had the cancer when the doctor looked for it. I have had to have it removed from my bladder four times and although that procedure is a day surgery, it is really not pleasant.

Bladder cancers are often treated with immunotherapy. In this treatment, a medicine triggers your immune system to attack and kill the cancer cells. Immunotherapy for bladder cancer is often performed using the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (commonly known as BCG). – MedlinePlus

This does not mean that it will not recur but, at least for now, I will not have to undergo another BCG treatment. I had that last summer and it was not pleasant. My doctor and I had discussed doing the BCG and adding interferon to it. I would have been even more sick for six to eight weeks during that treatment.

Other Health News

The spinal injection of steroids in early January has worn off. I will get another in early April, just in time to try fly fishing with friends and a trip to the Netherlands. Before the injection, I had feared that I would have to give up both fly fishing and travel. I could not walk more than a few blocks even with heavy pain medication. Now, physical therapy has brought me to a better place although by no means able to walk very far or stand for very long. The injection made me feel almost normal for a couple of months.

Overall, great health news this week. I will be seeing my NETs (neuroendocrine cancer) specialist within eight weeks. Let’s hope that also remains good.

May we all have the best possible outcomes,