Start From The Beginning

My journey of Running Against Bladder Cancer started the summer of 2010, when I returned from from my Sunday afternoon 5 mile run and I had blood in my urine.  It was a normal hot summer day in the Nashville area and I reasoned the blood was because of the heat and humidity.  A couple more days of running and still blood after each run sent me to my doctor.  I was treated for a urinary tract infection and given some medication.  My research on WebMD showed about 16 reasons for the blood and 14 were bad.

After a few months went by and the blood returned and my doctor ruled it was from dehydration from running.  I started running indoors and with a water bottle.  I ran in the Nashville Germantown Octoberfest 5K in Oct. 2010 and finished in 21:40, averaging 6:59 a mile, which was my goal to beat 7 minutes.  A vacation, then sprained ankle and I was done running until the new year.  No more blood showed up for the rest of the year.

2011 started with a couple of weeks of running and then the blood showed up again (only right after a workout).  My doctor asked me to bring in a sample of the bloody urine, but then the blood stopped.  Must be better.  Then in February after a day of no running, the blood was back, but I justified that it was after a day of golf and being on my feet all day.  Later in the week on Saturday, no running, no golf, but multiple blood in my urine.  I called my doctor and got referred to Dr. Tissot, my Urologist.

My visit to Dr. Tissot included a CT Scan that showed a spot in my bladder and an appointment for a Cystoscope.  That procedure revealed a very suspicious looking tumor and a surgery the second week of April.

Surgery day came and everything went smoothly thanks to the good personnel at Williamson Medical Center Hospital and two days later a diagnosis of T1 Bladder Cancer.   You never want to hear those words that you have cancer and it is a game changer in how are going to live your life.

One month later on May 9th, I was back in surgery with Dr. Tissot removing parts of my bladder muscle to make sure that my cancer had not progressed into the muscle.  If it was in the muscle then conventional treatment is to remove the bladder.   A few days later and Dr. Tissot sat down with Nancy and me for the results.  "You had cancer and now we are going to work to keep it coming back" were the words that I will always remember.  Now I wasn't battling for my life, but trying to "keep my original parts" as my doctor explained.

My treatments are called, Bacille Calmette-Guérin or BCG.   You can look it up in the Internet, but it is a chemo type treatment that has the solution put into the bladder to boost the immune responses and reinforce the lining of the bladder.