Living

I suppose that the best place to start this would be the beginning. Towards the end of 2005 (or maybe it was just the beginning of 2006), I noticed blood...

When I noticed blood in my urine, my doctors sent me to get an ultrasound to rule out anything serious. Instead, what they found was a 4-cm mass on the...

I want to talk about “Death.” It is one of those subjects that we don’t often think about until it’s too late or until we are diagnosed with a life-limiting...

Stomas are surgically created openings made into a hollow organ, like the bladder, to connect to the outside of the body. A variety of factors can lead to the need...

Like many in my generation, I have “real” friends – people whom I've met in person -- and “Facebook” friends – people with whom I've only spoken online. At the...

In this series, we discuss causes of anxiety for those facing physical health conditions. Phrases in quotes are the words of our community members across various conditions on what it’s...

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer. While it has been a rollercoaster on top of my Lung Cancer, it has been manageable. I initially had tumors on the wall...

Occasionally, there is some confusion within the bladder cancer community between two common treatments: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and Mitomycin. They are both intravesical therapies, meaning that they are treatments that...

We all feel "down" from time to time, but how do you know when it is getting a bit more serious than just 'being low'? Bladder cancer is one of...

When I got my bladder cancer diagnosis I had no personal experience with cancer and I had just turned 29. Because I was relatively young, and because none of my...

May is Bladder Cancer Awareness Month! This means it’s a great time to talk up bladder cancer to everyone you know! Despite being the sixth most common cancer, many people...

Bladder cancer is often considered a disease that strikes mainly men. This is because men are actually more likely to get it. But women, when diagnosed, tend to be diagnosed...

My friends joke that there's nothing too personal for me not to share on Facebook, and I have to agree. For some reason I don't understand, things just feel more...

Illustrations by Lucius Wisniewski for this comic done in partnership with his wife, Sarah Watts. There were many things that surprised me about my journey with bladder cancer. Maybe one...

Bladder cancer causes dysfunction along the entire urinary tract. Unfortunately, those resulting and frequent trips to the bathroom — often to void just a small amount of fluid — don’t...

This year, it will be two years since having my bladder removed and although at the time I thought I had made the worst mistake of my life, I am...

Long before and well after I lost my first husband to bladder cancer, I believed in food as medicine and the potential value of integrative or complementary medicine such as...

We take it as a fact in 2019 that smoking is a significant cause of cancer. Evidence-based medicine has demonstrated this. The knowledge that smoking is risky and increases the...

When I found out I was going to have to have my bladder removed and have a stoma and a bag, I had no idea what would be needed to...

Patients often hear a lot about the importance of clinical trials as a means of finding new treatments for bladder cancer. Less discussed is how to actually find and choose...