And .... I'm done (the first part, anyway)

This week was really challenging. I felt pretty good on Tuesday, so did some chores around the house for a couple of hours .... mistake. I spent the rest of the week on the couch, and really thought that the nurses would send me home on Friday because my bloodwork was bad. 

Turns out, my bloodwork was OK even though I felt like sh*t. So I got my last treatment (Gemcitabine) on Friday. Brother Don and daughter Kathryn came to the Cancer Agency for the appointment, and tag teamed sitting with me while the poison slowly leached into my body (being pretty dramatic here, aren't I).

So with this last session, I'm done with the chemotherapy part of my cancer treatment. The next step is to wait eight to twelve weeks to recover, and then bladder removal surgery. I had some hope that there might still be an option on the table to avoid the surgery, but Dr. Noonan (Oncologist) put that to rest last week - the standard of care for my situation is four cycles of chemo, followed by bladder removal. 

I'm impressed by BC Cancer for this - when I look into the evolving standards of care around the Western World, only a small percentage of health care systems have adopted this as best practice.  Many have these same studies, but have a hard time moving to the latest/best strategies.