I have been told that I am very paranoid on this point. Perhaps I am but I refuse to accept anything that can affect my life and I refuse to play Russian Roulette. I prefer the green side of the sod.
Of course we all know how we reproduce but single cells reproduce differently.
Single Cells reproduce by Cell Division. One cell has the ability to divide, on maturity, into two daughter cells which contain the same chromosome structure as the parent cell. When these two cells mature, they will divide into four cells.
- Four divides into eight
- Eight divides into sixteen
- Sixteen divide into thirty two
- keeps going into the trillions of daughter cells
Each daughter cell produced will be identical to the original parent cell because each contain the same chromosomes of the original parent.
In normal healthy cell division, each daughter cell will be identical to its parent and healthy like its parent.
In cancer cells, something triggers the formation of abnormal chromosomes. When the cancer cell divides, they pass on to the daughter cells these abnormal chromosomes. After a while through cell division a cancer tumor forms.
You get the Idea. Talk about rabbits. They have nothing on cells.
Yes, this is a very simplified explanation, I believe in simplification.
Here is how a Gentleman explained it to me.
You have two bags of marbles each bag contains ten marbles. In normal healthy cells, one bag of marbles, the nucleus divides into two with each nuclei containing ten marbles. This is called replication. Once the two nuclei are produced, the plasma of the cell divides giving two identical bags of marbles each containing ten marbles.
When something goes wrong in the division of the nucleus, for example one daughter cell ends up with ten marbles but the other daughter cell ends up with only nine.
When the daughter cell with nine marbles matures and divides, its two daughter cells will only have nine marbles. This is the beginning of a cancer tumour. ( very, very simplified )
A very simple comparison, but I did understand it more clearly.
What I am getting at here is that it only takes ONE cancer cell to breach the bladder wall to set up secondary cancer sites anywhere in your body.
Without Chemotherapy, this cell will survive and multiply.
When cancer tumors are found inside a bladder and attached to the bladder wall, Stage III, and removed who is to say that one cell has not breached the wall. Without major surgery where the Surgeon can see the out side of the bladder wall where the tumor was attached, it is nothing but an educated guess on his part that the outside wall of the bladder WAS NOT BREACHED.
I just cannot accept those odds. For me they are too high.
In my case, when I asked my Urologist, before my surgery, if he thought that the bladder wall was breached said NO. Much to his and my surprise, the pathologist found a few cancer cells in one of the lymph nodes from my groin.
The damn wall had been breached.
I give credit to the great Pathologist, who examined the tissue that was removed during my operation, as the reason I am still alive today. Without this Pathologist, I would not have received any Chemotherapy. Secondary cancer sites would have developed and I would probably be dead. Remember, I am talking about 2000 - 2001. Things have changed today.
This is the reason for my paranoia. Nobody screws around with my life.
From my experience, I recommend to all that have stage III bladder cancer to have at least a few rounds of intravenous Chemotherapy. It is hell to go through but it is your life we are talking about.
I feel that the above should also apply to those who are having the new method of ‘chemo bladder wash’.
I am NOT a gambler when it comes to my life.
Here is an excellent article on Cancer Cancer Cell Division.
Posted on March 27th, 2008 by Neil
Filed under: Bladder Cancer - Background, My Cancer
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