The Detours Seem to be Getting Shorter

Here's another quick update on my situation. A little over two weeks ago I went in for a second surgical procedure on my bladder. Coming out of surgery, I was greeted by my urologist/surgeon and he was very pleased with what he'd seen in there.  He did several deep biopsies in and around the area where the large tumor was and the pathology report came back with good news.  Not great news, but I'll take the good news at this point.

What they found was microscopic residual cancer cells around the edges of the tumor, but they found no cancer anywhere else. What this means is I'm not going to have any more surgeries for the foreseeable future.

Now comes the fun part. The big problem with cancer is the body's immune system doesn't recognize cancer cells as foreign entities, so the newest treatments have been designed around tricking the immune system to see that they really are foreign invaders.

So once a week for the next 6 weeks, I will have a type of weakened tuberculosis bacteria injected into my bladder. This treatment has proven highly successful against my kind of cancer.  After 6 weeks, I'll take a short break, then begin the regimen again. If all goes well, my immune system will take care of business and I can move on with my life.

As always, your notes of encouragement, support and love are totally appreciated. Thank you one and all.