I bet he is glad to be home! Prayers he is on the mend!
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Glad he’s home, sending healing vibes your way!
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Happy to hear he is home. Hope he gets to stay there for a good while. Prayers sent.
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We just finished Mrs. Davis on Peacock. It was a weird, wild ride but we enjoyed it a lot. Definitely kept us engaged all the way through!
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Healing vibes coming your way.
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Thinking of you both this afternoon and sending more jingles.
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How are you both doing?
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Not quite ready to post any updates but soon hopefully. Thank you for thinking of us.
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Hugs
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I am opting to respond to this post (about NYE going sideways) because my NYE also went sideways - I wound up calling 911 for my mom because she was super weak and got admitted for four days because she was bleeding so much through her bladder she needed a blood transfusion and monitoring.
The initial assumption was that the radiation she received for her ovarian cancer caused the issues (still might be the case), but she just had a cystoscopy done and it seems pretty certain that she has cancer in her bladder now. The urologist thinks it is likely to be metastasized (which is apparently very uncommon for ovarian cancer to go into the bladder but my mom has literally the most uncommon form of ovarian cancer which is also the kind most likely to go into the bladder). She’s getting a resection done this thursday, where the surgeon hopes he can get most of the masses, but he won’t know until he’s in there, of course. And we’ll still have to wait on results to figure out the next steps - though her oncologist is amazing (the urologist told us that her oncologist got his personal cell phone number and called to ask him to fit mom in for a cystoscopy asap, which he did. I already liked her oncologist (and her medical team in general)).
And just, I’ve followed this thread off and on and since you started it without commenting because I didn’t have much to say except “F*** cancer”. I still feel that way obviously, but I also hate that we sort of seem to be experiencing similar issues right now - the details aren’t the same. But it still sucks. I don’t want my mom to have cancer and be dealing with all these issues and I wish your husband wasn’t sick as well.
It’s so hard and it sucks so much. I hope that things work out as best as they can for you and your husband.
F*** cancer
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Yep. About a million times over. You either succumb to it, or it hangs over you and you have to “learn to live” with the surveillance and threat of recurrence. It causes emotional and mental trauma as well as financial. If i read anyone else’s problems I think “well, it’s better than cancer”.
Learning to let go and enjoy life has been very challenging.
I managed a lesson on my younger horse last night working on leg yield and straightness. Today my husband came with me as we made rounds to bundle the horses up and have a late lunch at one of our favorite spots. That seemed like a win for today.
@risuenaVT I really wish you and your mom peace, healing and strength during her journey. You can feel free to post updates here if you’d like. Otherwise send me a PM if you have any bladder related surgery questions. I had one years ago and now hubby has had two. Never thought bladders would rule our life, but here they are- killing it.
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TWH how are you guys doing?
Hey! Doing good! Recovery from the 2nd surgery has gone well. He gets his stent out next week and then stops antibiotics so I’m nervous for that. Hopefully he can go back to work soon! 
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Oh good I’m glad to see things are positive!
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Mom is back in the hospital this week - she had an appointment with her oncologist yesterday and when I picked her up, we both kind of figured that she’d probably be admitted overnight, probably for another transfusion for her hematuria. Her oncologist and the nurse practitioner did everything they could to not admit Mom overnight (mostly because they needed to admit her via the emergency room), but the infusion center nurses were very “I’m not telling you what to do, but I am worried and you are actively bleeding so I think you’re only stable because we are giving you IV fluids right now” I agreed with them, especially since a winter storm was forecast for today which could make it difficult for me to get Mom to the infusion center for a blood transfusion.
Mom ultimately decided to go to the emergency room. And her hemoglobin was so low that she got fast tracked, which still took a few hours.
Four units of blood overnight and she had a bladder embolization (inserting meds to shut off the bleeding vessels in the bladder via a blood vessel in the leg). Tomorrow she’s going to have a nephrostomy, possibly on both kidneys, to give her bladder a rest.
And because her cancer is metastasized from her ovaries and through her lymph nodes, they don’t want to remove her bladder yet because they would still have to deal with the cancer in the lymph nodes. So they want to start with a different systemic chemotherapy from previously (her tumor has a ROS1 mutation, which is apparently common in non-small cell lung cancer (no evidence of my mom having lung cancer), so they want to use a chemo that targets ROS1 mutations. And if that doesn’t work, there are a couple of other genetic markers in her tumor that could be responsive to immunotherapy drugs like keytruda. They can always remove the bladder later if indicated, but they are also talking about palliative care now - so managing quality of life, and removing the bladder is a major surgery with significant recovery.
I’m doing okay. I mean, it is what it is - I mostly just want to figure out how to get Mom’s bleeding and discomfort under control (and based on the phone call I had with her tonight after the embolization, it sounds like that has made a good start - she sounded almost good). I will worry about everything else later.
Ironically, on my way home from seeing Mom in the hospital today, I stopped by to see my lease horse, who also has terminal cancer. He’s a big happy doofus who so far is completely unbothered by his tumor, and based on the amount of hay on his face, he’d been having the time of his life shoving his head as far into the round bale as he could get (but he still left the round bale as soon as I said his name).
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Jesus. That is a big load to deal with. I’m so sorry , but I’m glad your mom has improved
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@risuenaVT that is a lot going in. I am very sorry your mom is having a tough time of it. Padcev combined w Keytruda has been a great combination treatment that has helped many bladder cancer patients with metastatic disease. Please ask her oncologist about it.
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Keytruda is definitely something that was mentioned, I’m not sure about Padcev. But I will keep that in mind. They want to try the the chemo targeted at the ROS1 mutation first, they did say that they’d love to do the chemo at the same time as keytruda and other immunotherapy drugs, but said that there’s no research about the two together so insurance would never approve it.
And while Mom’s cancer is ovarian, it does mimic bladder cancers, so it would certainly make sense to treat it in a similar way.
Anyway, she had the nephrostomies today - so both kidneys. We only spoke briefly, but she doesn’t find dealing with the ostomy bags to be too difficult. And theoretically, they don’t have to be permanent, so if chemo or immunotherapy manages the tumors…
Not holding my breath. I just hope that the nephrostomies make her comfortable. Currently assuming that she is coming home tomorrow (thursday).
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So sorry that you’re going through so much with your mom and your horse. I hope your mom is more comfortable going forward and her hemoglobin stabilizes. 
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Oh I am sorry, I thought she had primary bladder cancer.
My husband had a nephrostomy tube for a few weeks. It was fine the first few days and then became very bloody for about 24 hours so just fyi. He drank lots of water to flush it. The bandages were changed about every 3 days. Just monitor her carefully for any signs of infection, fever being number 1.
Currently, my husband finally has no tubes, catheters, drains or stents. Ureter stent came out yesterday and hopefully he can return to work next week. It’s hard to fathom given the last 4.5 months since surgery.
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