Kate Bohdanowicz

I haven’t blogged for ages and I don’t know why because a couple of weeks ago I received some good news. Excellent news, in fact. Not only was my recent CT scan clear of cancer but I’ve been told that will be my final scan. I’ll still have lots of checks and tests but no more CTs. That is a huge relief because as anyone who slides into the machine on a regular basis knows, the scanxiety is the worst.

I know some people will ask: ‘Shouldn’t they scan for five years?’ but the one thing I learned with this cancer malarkey is everyone is different. With my cancer type, staging, grading and follow ups the doctors feel they don’t need to do any more and that’s fine by me.

I haven’t come out of this totally scot-free as the chemo has damaged my kidneys. However, the renal specialist isn’t too worried and as there are no symptoms, neither am I. I’ll be monitored and to be honest, I feel impaired kidney function is a small price to pay for having my life saved and getting back to where I was pre-diagnosis.

When I was first diagnosed a urologist told me all this would eventually be a ‘dim and distant memory’. It’s not quite but I’m definitely looking at it more rationally and objectively. It is what it is. Despite the odds, it happened to me and it could happen to you.

May is bladder cancer awareness month. There isn’t much publicity about bladder cancer because no one likes talking about pee. It’s also referred to as an old man’s cancer. Well I’m neither old nor male and I got it. It would be nice to hear more about bladder cancer as the survival rate for 10 years is only 50%. I know far too many people who have died from it and many are women younger than me. Their symptoms were ignored because they weren’t old and male. And now they’re dead.  

So, thank you to Ian, this blog’s one verified reader who asked why I hadn’t written an update. I have now and maybe the next blog will be a cancer-free zone. Maybe I’ll tell you all about the course I’m doing. It’s in lipspeaking. You might need to look it up. It’s fascinating.