Judgment Day 2018: NOW 10 Years CANCER FREE! - August 2, 2018

The news is finally out and it is very good news indeed! After chasing my urologist literally halfway across the country and pushing the schedule out a few months, I finally had my cysto on Thursday, August 2. 

The news was welcome - "Your bladder looks fine."  ALL CLEAR, 10 years and 2 months after the last surgery.

This is a good milestone for Bladder Cancer. The biggie is two years, and it progresses like this: Probability of Bladder Cancer recurrence within 2 years is about 60%, from years 2 to 5 it drops to about 8%, then about 5% for years 6-10, and now after 10 years less than 2%. For Bladder Cancer it NEVER drops to zero.

Technically I can now claim terms like "remission" and "survivor."  But with annual cystos for life, it does not feel real to me. Not to say that I fear a recurrence.  My new lifestyle of lower weight, healthier diet, more exercise (well, more than zero anyway), and daily baking soda - gives me the confidence to live as normal, not fearing a recurrence. And if a recurrence comes, there's almost no chance of it being life-threatening - as long as I continue to do the annual cystos to keep it from getting out of hand.

Will I continue to travel to Oregon and use Dr. Hopkins?  Most likely I will. It turns out that Dr. Hopkins was recruited by the Asante Medical Group in Eugene, Oregon to replace their sole urologist, who retired shortly after Hopkins took the job. Now their plan is to build an all-new Urology practice around Hopkins - new facility, new doctors, new physician assistants, additional nursing staff, the whole works.  How does Dr. Hopkins feel about all of this?  Surprisingly not great.  The current patient load is taxing him physically and mentally, he loved living in Utah where he was born and raised and attended school, and he does not like having to adapt to new things. He told me the move was not for economics or working conditions or anything like that, but more for family - so that their younger children could grow up in his wife's home state and get a different experience from their older siblings.  He would have been happy to stay as things were.

I have to side with the wife here.  His former practice consistently treated him poorly - moving him from partner to employee, increasing work hours and decreasing compensation, and generally being only semi-competent administratively. The new practice, as it is built, will provide him the opportunity to set the stage for facilities and equipment, the quality of service, and the general tone of patient care.  He does believe it will ultimately be a different and better Urology practice than any within a couple hundred miles.  But in the meantime he is tired and stressed, and it did show on his face and in his demeanor.  I expect he will start to enjoy it within the next year or so as he gets more help and relief, and ultimately it may be truly great.  

In the meantime the scope and monitor were the latest and greatest (much better than what they had in Utah), the staff was on point, and after some initial confusion (they had scheduled me for "new patient consult" rather than cystoscopy), we got the job done quickly and with good results.  I was very happy with the overall professionalism, especially with the workload they had.  So for both myself and Dr. Hopkins, we should both be focused on looking forward.  I certainly plan to do so!