Last year on October 26th, I lost my dad to small cell carcinoma of the bladder which in case you didn’t know is very rare.
He was in pain for months before the doctors decided to test him for cancer. They tested for the most common bladder cancers and the test came back negative. We were relieved. They proceeded to do the dye test, which was ineffective. The camera cystoscopy was the next option; they saw the tumor through the camera and diagnosed it initially as a slow and non aggressive tumor. So after they found the tumor, they went in to take a biopsy of the tumor and burn them off. Less than a week later after the biopsy, we got a call from the doctor to come in right away. That was the day they worked out what it really was – small cell carcinoma. Less than 1% of bladder cancer cases are this strain of cancer, it was caught late and was super aggressive.
They booked him in the next week for the surgery to remove his bladder. He had the major surgery in August and had a stoma bag which he got used to and it was better than the alternative. Everything looked positive…
But then he got sick just before he could have chemo (literally the day before he was raced to hospital with a high potassium level), which they believed was a bladder infection. Then his infection didn’t ease after 2 weeks of antibiotics, he came home after he decided that the chemo wasn’t an option and 10 days later wasn’t with us anymore.
If he had been tested earlier or they did the small cell test when they originally tested he might have been here today. Which is why I wanted to help your foundation. To help screening and research as well as awareness for bladder cancer.
My dad was one of the smartest and nicest people I’ve known and I was lucky he was my dad, the world is worse off without him in it. He was talented in all electronics and if he wanted to do something he would learn as much as he could and put his heart and soul in till he knew how everything worked. He gave me my love for movies and music. But the best thing about him was, I knew he would always be there for me, no matter what. He was like that with anyone close to him.
Alicia