Small cell carcinoma of the bladder (SCCB): anyone else?

Jas, how is your husband doing? What did the biopsy reveal, is he still undergoing treatments? Sorry I didn't inquire earlier.

Good morning Richard. Thank you for your inquiry. My husband is doing fine, his biopsy showed non muscle invasive, high grade bladder cancer, Ta. Ta - describes the stage in bladder cancer. T0, Ta, T1, T2, etc…
He underwent 12 rounds of BCG treatment and is doing cystoscopy every 6 months, actually he “ graduated “ from doing cystoscopy every 3 months to every 6 just recently.
We learned to manage our expectations and live our lives one day at a time.
BCG is considered immunotherapy (not chemo), it was first used in the tuberculosis vaccine.

The size of your mass in the bladder is smaller than that of my husband.

I’m sending you some positive healing energy! Best of luck on Tuesday! Let me know how it went afterwards. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions and know that you are not navigating through this journey alone!

Good morning, Richard. I’m so happy that @naturalebyjas was able to tell you about her husband’s experience with the same procedure you’ll be having tomorrow. I can ‘hear’ the relief in your reply to her. ☺️
I love this forum for that reason! We can all do so much to help each other over the rough spots with our sharing. We can offer comfort, encouragement and hope!
I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow and wishing for only good news!

@loribmt, I have to postpone my procedure, winter conditions have made it unsafe to get to the hospital. I will have to reschedule and wait some more. Thank you for your support, it means a lot.

Richard

Hi JAS, I hope things continue to go get better for you and your husband and he needs no further actions except for checkups by cystoscopy. You are giving him much support with your love and concern, it definitely helps him cope with the whole situation. My surgery, unfortunately, has to be postponed. A massive winter storm has made the roads almost impassable where I live and I can't get to the hospital. So I'll have to reschedule and wait.

Hi Richard! Mother Nature isn’t playing very nicely with any of us right now it appears. Where I live, the temp won’t even reach above zero today. I’m sorry your procedure was postponed! Hopefully it can be rescheduled soon! In the meantime you get to start that anxiety clock again, huh.

I’m actually sitting at my oncologist office right now for a visit with him. I’m celebrating my 5th year being cancer free! Just waiting for the results of my blood so we can review them together. Not expecting any surprises! I brought treats for the whole gang today because without them I wouldn’t be alive today.
So I do really understand what you’re going through. Our cancers are different but the feelings of uncertainty are the same. We just have to ‘grab the bull by the horns’ and face these things head on. We deal with the diagnosis and treatment so that we can move forward and resume our lives. So hang in there, Richard! And stay warm! Let me know when you have your next appointment. ☺️

Hi Richard, sorry you have to reschedule due to weather.
Thank you for the kind words. Having a good support system does make it a bit easier, but I give my husband most of the credit because he is a trooper.
You will be in our thoughts and prayers, continue sending you positive healing energy!
Please do not hesitate to reach out. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hi Lori, yes, after several years of no real winters, Mother Nature is striking back. Glad to hear you've been cancer free for 5 years; may this continue. I have Smoldering Myeloma, not quite active Multiple Myeloma yet, it's my other "friend" although I just go for quarterly blood/urine analyses to see what it's doing.

Hi Jas and Lori, had my TURBT yesterday. Being out of it after, I didn't really get an idea from the surgeon how extensive the tumor was. Before the surgery, though, he said that if he had to go deep into the wall, he would not use mitomycin as it could cause damage to tissues treated in that way. So mitomycin was used. Catheter but it was taken out about 40 minutes after I woke up and the mitomycin removed (it was purple!). He left in a stent from my right kidney to my bladder, will be in for about 2 weeks. Lots of bladder spasming, blood clots and blood last night when urinating; it's getting better. I have a follow-up in about 2 weeks to remove the stent and get the results of the biopsies. Thanks for all your kind words and support.

Good morning Richard,

Thank you for letting us know. So the surgery went smoothly for you and I’m glad this is behind you!. My husband didn’t have stent after the surgery. Our experience is that if you drink large volume of water daily during the first week after the surgery, it helps alleviate the spasms and the burning sensation. My husband drank one gallon of water everyday, to a point he couldn’t look at the water anymore at the end of the day. Of course you will have frequent urination, plenty of water helps flush out the clots, blood and the rest of the toxins. Try to avoid coffee during the first week and of course finish all your water intake at least 4 or 5 hours before bedtime.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you, it can be stressful while waiting for the biopsy, now looking back, I’d say, maintaining a positive outlook can make things a bit easier. It is definitely easier said than done. We tried meditation, he said it helped him a great deal some days, but there were days he just could not bring his mind to focus on the here and now.

Get plenty of rest, please do not hesitate to reach out, I can be a listening ear at the very least.

Jas