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Part IV

My urologist returned in January. He was unaware of what had happened until I spoke to him. His response was that he was not concerned about the stricture. "The important thing was to be sure that there was no cancer." I fully understood his focus on the cancer but was unhappy that that focus appeared to be distracting him from dealing with a problem that made me miserable and which I wanted to be sure would not recur. I answered, "I'm glad you're not worried about the stricture, but I am!" He assured me that he would treat the stricture with laser at the next cystoscopy. A urine

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Part III

When you learn that you have cancer, it changes you for ever. Every clean bill of health is a celebration, and an invitation to go back to living, but... waiting once more for the ticking time bomb, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then, there are complications of treatment that never let you forget.
I thought that my bladder cancer was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but I was wrong. Two years ago, just after my mother's 83 birthday, she developed leukemia. She quickly went from an independent woman with her own apartment and car to assisted living. Her doctors were

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Part II

I took my catheter out and prepared to enjoy my recovery with all my problems behind me. I had my first Christmas celebration with gifts and stockings since my daughter's boyfriend wasn't Jewish and the kids wanted to do it. Of course, we threw a little Hanukkah Gelt into the stockings to make it ecumenical. The hooks for the stockings are still screwed into the mantle. Then we went out to the movies. I almost drove us into some wrong way traffic - maybe still under the influence of anesthesia. I made it through the movie without having to go to the rest room, but afterwards, I had a

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Hello everyone, and thank you again for your encouraging words and for sharing your own stories.

I had my post TURBT consult yesterday to go over the pathology report. Surprisingly decent results:

1 - The tumor, my doc said, was quite small and papillary, and there was no CIS.
2 - The tumor was Ta again - noninvasive.
3 - The grade of the cancer was G1, which surprised me. But the doc said it was, moreover, at the low range even of that.
4 - The doc said that, all in all, this instance can be considered to not be a meaningful recurrence.

He, as a result, has put me on the standard 3-month

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Thank you all for your expressions of concern and encouragement.

I had my TURBT on Thursday. Will know the results at the follow-up consult when we get the pathology report. My doc also administered Mitomycin during the procedure.

Earlier in the week, during the pre-op consult, we discussed the implications of this recurrence. He said that if it turned out to be T1 (he is in the camp that considers T1 to be invasive) we'd have to begin consideration of bladder removal. If it remains Ta, then we can look at BCG maintenance therapy, given the particulars of my history with this disease.

I showed

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Hi all. I was on this site, reading and posting, back in 2004, early 2005. I had my first experience with bladder cancer in June 2004.

Female, age 47 then (50 now)

Single 3 cm tumor, T1 (almost T2a, but dodged that bullet by a fortunate layer or two of cells), grade 2/3. TURBT on June 4, 2004 & quit smoking the night before surgery, haven't touched one since. Re-TURBed early July to be sure the muscle wall was not involved. No invasion of the muscle wall.

Began 6 weeks of BCG, in August 2004, but had such horrible bladder spasms and pain from it, the dose was reduced. Although I managed to make

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(26 July 2006 continued)

He also asked me if I had felt any pain recently on my right side. This, because he couldn't see the orifice for the right ureter. He called in another doctor for his opinion, and he also asked me about the pain on my right side. I haven't had any, so they suspect the path of the urine from the kidney is not obstructed, but the view of the ureter orifice is obscured by something, perhaps related to healing from the 2nd TUR. This second doctor also concurred that the formations at the resection site could be nothing, but were suspicious and needed to be looked at more

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(continued)

So now it has been time to try to get a grip on the nature of my peculiar visitation of the disease. It presents a bit of a quandary. If it had been TaG1, no dilemma: keep the bladder, pursue a disciplined maintenance program, and outlive the disease. If it had been a T2G3, say, also no dilemma: the result, probably sooner rather than later, is going to be a bladder removal and reconstruction in order to defeat the cancer before it can progress beyond the bladder and become life-threatening. But a TaG3? Which side of that will prove to be the fundamental characteristic of the

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Hello everyone.

I thought it might be time to start recording here my experiences with this disease, before too much time goes by, and so I have as fresh and accurate a baseline as possible to come back to, myself, for reference.

I served 21 years in the USMC, retired to San Diego where my wife completed her doctorate in clinical psychology, and then we moved to our current home in Istanbul, Turkey, where she was born. I lived a life of clean habits and pure thoughts characteristic of the typical US Marine infantryman, with the exception that I smoked cigarettes - heavily. Probably 2-3

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Superficial Cancer in the Blatter Ta Grade 1

15-03-2005
Had my 4th cystoscopy check since the TURT in June 2004. No recurrence! My doctor feels that we can bring the checks back to once in 4 mths


22-09-04
had my 1st cystoscopy check. All clean and well!


Today (13/7/2004) I had my second opinion appointment at the Antonie van Leeuwenhoek hospital which is the main Cancer Institute in the Netherlands.
The doctor approved the policy to have a 4 times per year Cystoscopie and 1 x per year X-IVP. (kidney photo). They will re-examn the pathology, and redo the IVP cause my belly was filled with air the

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