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 it through the remaining treatments with the help of a lot of meds, my uro decided I was not a good candidate for maintenance treatments. According to him, he has never had a patient have such a severe reaction to these treatments.
Continued with 3 month cysto’s and urine cytologies for all of 2005 with no problems. Made it to my first 6 month check up (July, 2006). Cysto looked good but cytology report of atypical cells in the urine. Uro orders DNA check on it. Normal. Given the option of checking iy out again in 3 months, or biopsies. Choose 3 month check up.
October 2006 cysto looks good. Cytology again reports atypical cells. Uro recommends biopsies. November 21, 2006 – 8 random samples taken, 1 area reveals Ta (not sure on grade), another area reveals dysplasia (pre-cancerous).
Because of my previous reaction to BCG, my uro recommends against repeating the treatments with it, and recommends Interferon instillations, once a week, for 6 weeks. This won’t be started until after the holidays, as my bladder needs the time to heal.
I’ve done some reading, and most of the information I am finding refers to INF with BCG. Does anyone have any experience with just the interferon on its own? I would appreciate the input. Since my BCG fiasco, I am also concerned about the potential side effects, and their intensity, but guess I’ll find tthat one out when I get there. 😮
Well, that’s the story to date – Hi again to those of you I met before, and Hi to all of you who have come along since.
