Paula Cochran
For The Daily Item
August 26, 2008 09:57 pm
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When Joey Reich got the flu at age 32, he never expected the virus would end up causing him to need a heart transplant.
But the virus attacked his most vital organ, causing viral cardiac miopothy, swelling that left permanent damage to his heart. Ten years later he was blessed to get a heart transplant and his life returned to normal.
Until 10 years later, when he woke up urinating blood.
Doctors first thought Reich, now 52, was suffering a urinary tract infection, then a kidney stone. A urologist found the real cause — a gumball-sized tumor in the lining of his bladder.
Within a few weeks, Reich found himself again facing a life-threatening illness — a urothelial carcinoma with muscular invasion.
In laymen’s terms, third-stage bladder cancer.
“After I picked my jaw up off the floor I thought, what do we do now?” Reich said, remembering the shock of the diagnoses. “I had 10 good years after my heart transplant. I got off disability and had returned to work, only to go back on medical leave.”
Reich knew he needed to return to Hershey Medical Center for treatment. That was where he had had his heart transplant, and where the transplant team would support him every step of the way.
“Without a good support system,” he said, “cancer is even more devastating,”
Time for surgery
At Hershey, Reich was told that to save his life he would need chemotherapy, along with the removal of his bladder and prostate, which were also found to be cancerous.
The doctors planned to replace his bladder with a neo-bladder. “This is a fairly new surgery. The reason they decided to use it on me was because the surgery was totally internal, with less chance of infection than having an external bladder with a urinary bag,” Reich said.
Because of the heart transplant, Reich had been on anti-rejection and immune suppressant medicines to make sure his body would continue to accept the foreign heart. The immune suppressant drugs made him more vulnerable than the average person to infection.
The 11-hour surgery included taking out Reich’s bladder, prostate and around 25 inches of intestine. “They took the tube of intestine and cut it and laid it out flat,” Reich explained. “Then they cut that into a W shape and folded it. Then they sewed it onto itself with hundreds of stitches, making it into an accordion style device. The style allows the bladder to expand, lengthen itself and shrink back up.”
Post-op days
Within a short period of time Reich learned to control his new bladder. Because the actual bladder muscles were gone, he had to do exercises to teach his abdominal muscles how to control his bladder. “I don’t get the same sensation I used to ... it’s more like a gas pain telling me my bladder is full,” Reich explained.
Now considered 100 percent cancer free, Reich contemplates the end results. “I still have problems when I go to sleep. I try to be careful not to drink fluids after 7 p.m. and I try to empty my bladder before I go to sleep.”
But when you go to sleep, so do your abdominal muscles, so sometimes bladder leakage occurs.
“There are days I feel sorry for myself, but one trip to oncology cures that. In the scope of things, I look around and see the suffering people go through, it’s a small price to pay.”
After surviving two major health problems, Reich learned that “no matter how bad things are right now, God can change that. You have to live within the moment, one day at a time, sometimes five minutes at a time because five minutes from now the pain might not be as bad as it was five minutes before.”
Be an advocate
For dealing with cancer, Reich found the American Cancer Society Web site invaluable. From day one, he said, you can arm yourself with knowledge of your disease, learn what treatments there are, what side effects to expect, pre-op and post-op suggestions, and get encouragement from survivor stories.
When faced with a major illness, Reich found that “you must be an advocate for yourself. If you are not getting the care you think you should, or you’re working with a doctor who won’t work with others, you need to run.”
And though you cannot always be positive, someone else can be positive for you. “In the long run that is worth more than gold. My wife has helped me through two major illnesses, as have my family, friends, church family, physicians, nurses, and most importantly, my faith. Without that, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
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