The Similarities Between Bladder Cancer and COVID-19

An illness that kills some and is a nuisance illness for others. An experience that disrupts life as we knew it. A highly unpredictable disease that seems arbitrary in its attacks and retreats. A chronic feeling that another shoe could drop at any time.

It’s hard not to notice the substantive and emotional parallels between COVID-19 and bladder cancer.

Living with uncertainty

Whether we are sick or well, our lives are full of uncertainty. But in good times – via schedules and activities and routines – we are able to delude ourselves that some things in life are certain. When illness strikes, we are suddenly reminded that nothing in life is certain.

Upended daily life

I remember how upended our life felt when my first husband was diagnosed with metastatic bladder cancer. The experience consumed us. I constantly had this sense that the world kept spinning merrily but that we were no longer a part of it. I felt like I could see and remember normal life, but I was no longer allowed to partake in it.

It’s a lot like the last few months with the coronavirus. Except honestly, for me specifically, this is much easier. I’m very lucky that I have not been impacted economically or from a health perspective (so far, and hopefully, it stays that way). Metastatic bladder cancer had forced us to stay home a lot. And it was frustrating because it felt like we were missing out on life.

Those experiencing bladder cancer during the coronavirus pandemic

I feel deeply for those experiencing bladder cancer right now: the risks of the virus; the canceled or deferred treatments; the sense of piling illness upon illness. But I hope, on some level, knowing that everyone’s life has been disrupted somewhat is a small comfort. There is nothing to miss out on because there’s been nothing happening.

And as states start to reopen and now (as of this writing in late June) are starting to slow those re-openings because of rising case counts, many of us are relegated to some isolation again. And, to repeat the oft used cliché, we are isolated together.

Wishing things could be different

I so wish things could be different for stage IV bladder cancer patients. Things are better than they were six years ago when I was a caregiver because there are more treatment options. But people are still dying, and so the options are nowhere near sufficient.

And I so wish we could eliminate this virus. I believe we have failed as a nation to take seriously this very serious health risk. Because everyone does not get incredibly sick from it, it is difficult to fully grasp its impact.

The magnitude of the loss

We have become blasé about the idea of hundreds of thousands of people dead. As I write, the United States is closing in on 126,000 deaths. That’s about seven-and-a-half years of bladder cancer deaths in about four months. It’s also the equivalent of about forty-two 9/11s. But because these deaths happen not as a dramatic plane crashing into a building but in the ICUs behind closed doors, it is easy to not see the magnitude of the loss.

If we get serious as a country, we can make fast progress in taming the virus. And then get back to the business of taming other diseases like bladder cancer.