>> Welcome back.
A Lebanon County male was on vacation when he suddenly had blood in his urine.
Dave Bishop didn't know what was happening, be he knew he needed to see a doctor immediately.
Here's Dave's journey.
>> Dave Bishop and his wife Sue take advantage of this beautiful day, they spend the afternoon
on the tennis courts.
>> Dave Bishop: Good shot!
Another good one.
>> After a few games, Dave must get to work, it's his job to clean up the courts as an
employee of the Hershey Country Club.
>> Good exercise for one thing, the comradery with people, you know, I enjoy being with
the people there.
And, I'm still competitive, so I enjoy the competition.
It's a good workout, if you play even doubles, it is a good workout.
>> And active lifestyle that was interrupted while they were in Florida playing tennis.
>> We were on vacation, and suddenly I have blood in my urine, and a significant amount.
>> I call my sister, who is a nurse, and she said, "Does he have pain?"
And I said, no, and she said, "Go to the ER."
>> The ER doctor said, "Well, it might be a urinary tract infection, however, I think
you ought to see your doctor when you get home.
Being scared right off the bat, we decided we're going to take off right away, and we
drove all the way home in one shot from Florida.
You know, and then got an appointment with the family doctor.
>> Our family doctor sent him for some tests.
and then he sent them right away to the Urologist.
>> So, we went to the Urologist and discovered that we had bladder cancer.
>> Bladder cancer is the cancer that starts in the lining of the urinary bladder, it can
also affect the lining of the kidneys and the ureters, the tubes that drain the kidneys.
>> Dave Bishop: At that point, you know, you're wondering, well, you know, what's that mean?
You know, am I going to live or am I going to die from this?
You know, cancer word was you know, something that you meant a death sentence.
>> It was very difficult, very scary, and very stressful.
>> How do we go about telling the children and the grandchildren?
And, how are we going to deal with this?
>> Dave's Urologist suggest BCG to treat the cancer.
>> BCG is a weakened form of tuberculosis that we use in patients that have non-muscle
invasive bladder cancer to try to prevent them from having recurrences within their
bladder.
And also, to try to keep them from having progression to muscle invasion.
>> Dave underwent BCG treatments for a number of years, until the therapy stopped working.
>> At the point where we first met him, he actually had some disease that had grown into
the ureter itself, into the tube that drains that left kidney.
All of these are signs of progressing disease, and signs that we're no longer really able
to treat the patient with the bladder intact.
>> Dave Bishop: Quite candidly he said, "Well, I think you've come at the right time, I think
you just dodged a bullet."
"It's time for us to remove your bladder."
>> So, what I recommended for Dave is that we remove his bladder and his prostate, along
with the lymph nodes in his pelvis, which would be the first place that the cancer would
spread to.
We also wanted to take out his left kidney, which was no longer functioning.
And the drainage tube that led from the kidney down to the bladder, which had cancer in it.
In order to reconstruct his urinary tract, we would take a small piece of his small intestine,
connect his remaining ureter to the one end, and bring the other end out to the skin.
And he would wear a bag over that opening, the urine would drain continuously into that
bag.
>> He said, "This is going to be necessary, and here is the way you're going to deal with
that from here on out.
You know, you're going to have a stoma, and you're going to have a bag for the urine.
And you'll empty it that way, and this is the way you'll be.
>> My question at that time, I remember it, is it going to get -- is that going to get
rid of the cancer?
And he said, "Yes."
And we looked at each other and said, do it.
>> You're apprehensive, and yet, wondering, you know, is that -- this is going to be the
solution, so you go through it.
>> Sue Bishop: Day of surgery, I think it was an eight-hour surgery, so that was very
difficult.
My friends and family, everybody came in, and you know, sitting with us.
And Dr. Kay is wonderful, when they get through a certain stage and he comes out, talks to
the family, said, "Everything's going fine."
>> Dave spent a few days in the hospital, and a few months getting comfortable with
the ostomy bag.
>> It's an adjustment, and we would have very good Ostomy nurses from the med center would
help out and say, "Well, here's what -- here's how you can do it."
>> We had to learn how to clean the bag, how to take care of everything.
>> A new and much better way of life for Dave and Sue.
>> I'm feeling probably a 100% of what I had been prior to this time, and I feel good to
be on the court now.
>> He had his surgery, he has something that he has to live with for the rest of his life,
but he's going to live, and that's the important thing.
>> I am a survivor, and that's the most important thing to me, that when you start talking about
cancer, the -- also that tag of survivor is to me, the most important thing.
>> Dave is chairman of the Bladder Cancer Support Group at the med center.
He wants bladder cancer patients to realize you can do almost anything after the surgery
as you can well see.