John Dowling

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
As many of you know Back in December dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer.  After a procedure in February to remove the tumor we thought we were on our way to healing.  WELL... we soon discovered that the pathology on the tumor was considered "high grade" and aggressive.  The next step was to have a "radical cystectomy" (removal of the bladder).  On July 8th dad had his surgery and did very well according to the surgeon.  However, it was discovered during surgery that the cancer had already spread to his abdominal cavity and lymph nodes, at that time the surgeon removed all cancer tumors that he could see.  We are 5 weeks out from the surgery, which by the way he is recovering from physically VERY well.  He's adjusting to having a stoma and ostomy and learning to follow doctor's and Shannon's orders.  August 2nd we met with his oncologist for a treatment plan, August 3rd he had a PET scan to get a baseline and an assessment of other tumors or cancer cells.  August 11th we met back with the oncologist and were met with bad news.  Dad's cancer has spread to his pelvic floor, lungs, bone, lymph nodes and various other spots, Stage IV metastatic bladder cancer.  So now what?  WELL, we are waiting for approval on an immunotherapy drug called "Tecentriq" and if that drug is approved he will begin treatment.  It usually takes 1 week to hear back on approval.  If the immunotherapy drug is not approved...PRAY that the drug gets approved.
Check back for more updates.