OT: We need your prayers and positive thoughts...
 

Here we go again...

It's 4:30 in the morning, and I can't sleep. My sweet, beautiful wife is sleeping peacefully, but I'm tossing and turning, because at 11:30 today we will meet with our doctor to discuss the pathology report and see in what direction the rest of our lives will go. Right now my wife is 19 weeks pregnant, carrying our second child. We actually have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday to find out if it will be a boy or a girl. But first we have to get through this. She went into the hospital on Friday because of blood in the urine. On Saturday they removed a tumor from her bladder that was the size of a lemon, and they say there is a 90% chance that it is malignant. If the tumor turns out to be superficial (first layer of the bladder), we will be in pretty good shape - localized chemo to lessen the odds of recurrence and careful monitoring from here on out. But if it is an aggressive type of cancer (God I hate that word), or it has invaded the muscular lining of the bladder, we may have to terminate the pregnancy and perform much more invasive, lifestyle-altering surgery. Or worse. No one that we have talked to has ever encountered a case of bladder cancer during pregnancy. It is usually something that predominantly strikes men in their sixth decade of life and beyond, usually heavy smokers. I guess we will be pioneers of sorts.

I don't really know why I'm pouring all of this out for thousands of people whom I have never met. Maybe I'm just looking for a little positive Karma to get us through all of this. Maybe God (or whatever higher entity there might be) will hear our prayers and give us back our lives. It didn't work in July when I lost my brother. Maybe it will this time....


P.S. - To all of the ladies out there, this is important. If you ever have any unexplained bleeding, make sure that you rule out something like this first. Don't just take your doctors' word that it is common, probably a UTI, etc. We probably lost three months doing this, when a simple exam by a urologist would have uncovered this. Actually, that goes for the guys too. Be proactive in your healthcare - it is your right.


Sorry if I bummed anyone out. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife. I hope everything works out as best as possible. Don't feel embarrassed about putting your thoughts here we are all family. When it comes to things like this it's good to talk and get it out.

I wish you and your wife the best of luck.

Thoughts and prayers will be with you. Be positive. As Ray said, we are one big family especially when we hear about things like this.

Take care.

My thoughts are with you two, I wish for the best. Be positive.

God Bless and keep you, your wife, and your child.

GOD BLESS ....

Wish you good luck and God Bless !!! Jo

It is amazing what the power of having thousands of people thinking about you and praying for you can do. Keep your attitudes positive. We are all praying for you, and hopefully it is not malignant and all goes well.
God Bless

God Bless you

Budman
I hope & pray for all of you.
Be strong & stay positive.

Well Budman. I keep my trusty 8 ball around for things like this. He tells me that "It's decidedly so" when I ask it if Budman's wife, and newborn is going to be fine.:)

You're chuckling, but this 'ole 8 ball has been good to me.

Best of luck.

Budman, I'll keep you and your wife in my thoughts. By the way, my wife is also just a little past 19 weeks right now.

May God Bless

God Bless

Budman, my prayers are with you and yourwife & child.
I do not want to steal your prayers from you but I was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which came from an accident I had recieved while I was working, Let's start from the top so everyone can follow along.

Its September 2002 we are hauling boats out of the water to winter store, its a windy day, my boss is driving a 42' sailboat into the hoist area, the wind picks up, he yells out keep your hands out of the way, well they were, my left breast got caught inbetween the two steel pilings and was ripped off my chest bone.
That's when I found out I had breast cancer and the sudden trauma that it went through caused the tumor to be crushed and some how got into my blood stream and into my stomach.

Since then I have gone through 3 different surgery's to save my breast and gone through keymo and I did this alone, I wish to god I would have been able to talk to someone, but you are doing the best thing just by talking.

So all of us can pray with you, the more the better, so please do not feel embarrassed about this at all, we all need somebody to talk at one time or another.

All my prayers are with, may GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND KEEP EVERYONE SAFE

Julie

Re: OT: We need your prayers and positive thoughts...
 

Sometimes it does a person good just to vent. There's not many people in the world who cancer doesn't at least come in close contact with , so we all should be able to understand you concerns. Our prayers are with you ,Bud. For what it's worth my neighbor is a 10 year bladder cancer survivor;)

OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.

God bless and good karma.

lucy

Our prayers are with you. God bless.

Best of luck, my prayers are with your family and you.

God Bless...

Our thoughts and prayers are with your family! Stay strong and positive! Your OSO family will continue to pray and support you you thru this difficult time.

God Bless!

Julie

Our prayers are with you.

Best of luck, hopefully everything will work out fine.

God Bless.

Update:

We got the pathology report - unfortunately it shows that it is the most aggressive type of cancer - grade 3. At this point there is still not a determination as to whether it has spread into the muscle. We will have to wait three weeks for another biopsy to determine that.

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming.

PS - Julie22, what a horrible experience for you to have to suffer! I hope that everything works out well for you. You have my prayers for a full recovery.

Budman, My prayers are with you in this difficult time.
My aunt was Diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer and was given a very short time. A year and a half later she is doing well and things seem to be under control. Her key, as she says, " its all about prayer, positive thinking, and laughing"

I hope all of this works out Bman. Sounds ugly. Takes a strong person to fight throw something like this. Best of luck!

Julie,
Wow, what a terrible story. Now you're one strong chick! ;) How's your recovery coming along??? Hopefully all is better.

Like Scott, I know a lot of people who have beaten the odds. Get several opinions, do research on your own, and remember there are a lot of people out there pulling for you. Give her a big hug from all your OSO buddies. I am sending positive thoughts your way.
Donna

Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Try to think positive, have faith and good things will happen.

God Bless.

I know it may seem that your world is coming apart but you have to remember to keep a positive outlook on things. Don't dwell on the worst thoughts when you don’t have all of the facts, as it will take so much out of you. It is important to keep in communication with those close to you. Try to get as much information from as many sources as you can. We all wish you the very best and we are here when you need to talk.

Julie, I can't even imagine such a traumatic experience. I glad you are with us today and wish you well for a full recovery.

God Bless
Roby

I will let my Christian Men's Business Group know about this and we will all pray for you and your loved ones.

I've gone thru some (what I call) difficult times and what I've learned for myself is to keep the faith that God is ALWAYS blessing us. Sometimes, we just don't understand or realize it in the moment.

Budman, Mrs. Budman, and Baby Budman :)

We wish you the best, our thoughts and our prayers are with you.

The Stinsons

The best to you and yours. May you both find the strength you need....

Update - biopsy tomorrow...
 

Thanks to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers. I have not spent much time on OSO lately because I have been surfing all of the cancer sites to learn as much about "the beast" as possible. I now think I could go into med school. Not the way that I prefer to get an education.

The pathology report indictates that it is a grade III tumor, which means it has the tendency to be aggressive. It was inconclusive regarding muscle intrusion because no muscle tissue was present in the specimen. This means that she will have to go back into the hospital tomorrow to have some more muscle tissue removed for a biopsy. The results of this will dictate our future course of treatment. Obviously, with the pregnancy our treatment options will be quite limited.

Wish us luck, and say a prayer for us if you have time.

P.S. - If we get unfavorable test results, there is a fairly good chance that we will have to travel to a larger city that has more experienced doctors in this type of cancer. If this happens, I might get to meet some of you all.

Thanks again,

Tom

Re: Update - biopsy tomorrow...
 

As much as I would like to meet I hope it can be under different circumstances. My thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope all goes well and keep a positive prospective on things.... trust me, it helps

Roby

Man, good luck to both of you. Hang in there!

I will be praying for you, your wife and your baby that things go well tomorrow. I'll keep you all in my thoughts along with my friends who lost their fourth baby a couple of weeks ago. Please keep us updated. God bless you all.


Ange

Hope everything goes well. My thoughts and prayers are with you!