Bladder Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others

Hi,
My name is Irene & my husband had a procedure to
check a 2 cmm tumor for bladder cancer. I talked to
the dr. after the procedure & she says it looked like
cancer, but will have to wait until the pathology report.
Very nervous, I am having trouble waiting for the results

I

I am about to turn 80 and was diagnosed with high grade bladder cancer about three months ago. Had TURBT initially to remove a 5cm tumor. Just completed my sixth BCG treatment today and have had some side effects starting with the fourth treatment, headaches, body soreness, cough and congestion, but nothing I could not manage. Will have a cystoscopic evaluation in two to three weeks.
After reading through many of the entries at this site I think I have very little to complain about. There are so many folks with problems much more serious than mine. My health is generally good and I am optimistic about my condition. My doc says my prognosis is excellent and I can’t ask for a better opinion. I’ll post again after the evaluation. Fingers and toes crossed.

I am about to turn 80 and was diagnosed with high grade bladder cancer about three months ago. Had TURBT initially to remove a 5cm tumor. Just completed my sixth BCG treatment today and have had some side effects starting with the fourth treatment, headaches, body soreness, cough and congestion, but nothing I could not manage. Will have a cystoscopic evaluation in two to three weeks.
After reading through many of the entries at this site I think I have very little to complain about. There are so many folks with problems much more serious than mine. My health is generally good and I am optimistic about my condition. My doc says my prognosis is excellent and I can’t ask for a better opinion. I’ll post again after the evaluation. Fingers and toes crossed.

Hi all,

I am new to the group and wish I had known about this 7 years ago. I am an avid biker and after a long bike ride back in 2018, I saw blood in my urine. The local urologist I went to said he saw a tumor in my bladder. I was shocked as this does not run in family and am very healthy.
The surgeon removed the tumor which was a high grade but had not gotten into the bladder wall. I can thank the lord that it was detected early. Another month and it could have been a different recovery. I started BCG treatments for the next few months and made it through 90% until my body started to reject them.
Bladder was monitored via cystoscopy over the next 7 years, every 3 months , then 6 months and last 2 years it was yearly, all negative. It was starting to feel like I had gotten past this and my dr felt the same.
However, this last month, the scope revealed a small growth on the back wall of my bladder. After 7 years!!!
The surgery was yesterday and we are waiting on the pathology report to determine the next steps, bCG or other immunotherapy.
I wonder if there are any case studies or data to support using bCG as a preventive. The prior year, the scope was clean.
Has anyone had similar experiences?

We have an appt. on the 22nd of April to get the pathology report on whether it is cancer & the stage.
Praying for your husband, thank you for replying.

Hello. We found my 81 year old mother has bladder cancer this week.
It is:
Papillary
Noninvasive
Low grade
Stage 1
Uninvolved
The tumors were 1 superficial & 1 deep but did not enter the muscle.
They think they got all of it but since it was over 3mm they are going to use immunotherapy with BCG.
Mom is having some physical discomfort in her abdomen but the bigger issue is that she is so freaked out she is disassociating which makes it difficult for her to retain information about her condition & what she should be doing. I’ve been trying to help her learn to calm down with breathing - working towards meditation etc. but I don’t live close.
questions:
Has there been anything that you/yours have found to be helpful to decrease side effects or increase comfort throughout this process?
Have you found a guide for eating to:
Know which foods are best to consume/avoid for people dealing with bladder cancer? To boost health & decrease possible recurrence?
Thank you for your time & I’m sorry for whatever scenario landed you in this spot.

Hello. I was diagnosed with High Grade Bladder Cancer in January of 2025. It was noninvasive, and categorized as high grade because there were several tumors. They were at the neck of the bladder, which explained a lot!
I popped back up to the top after writing this message to warn and apologize that is is a bit long. I gave details that might help if you are facing this treatment for the first time.

I had sudden bleeding with urination and my doctor told me to go straight to the ER. I did so and got referred to a urologist.

The urologist was very matter of fact but also encouraging. He told me he would scrape it out and I would live another 50 years. Gosh, that would make me really, really old!

There was so much I didn't find out until later, like the need for a follow-up surgery and all the chemo treatments I would need. My sister had a small spot at age 30, which was very young for this, and it was removed and no chemo. She had lots of check-ups over the years, though. She has been clear. I think that helped me to be optimistic, although mine was far more advanced in terms of volume, but thankfully noninvasive.

Now I have had two TURBT's and my first infusion of GEMDOCE. That was today. I was dreading the possible complications, but went through it very easily as far as a lack of burning and things I had feared.

I was advised to bring something to entertain myself. I took my iPad and watched a Netflix movie that I realized I had already seen, but this time I was actually paying attention. A lighthearted movie was perfect to help pass the time. As many have explained, the catheter stayed in for the gemcitabine, and for me that was the biggest discomfort. I hate catheters. There was no real burning as I had feared. After 90 minutes it was drained, the docetaxyl (not sure of my spellings) was put in and I went home. I finished watching the movie and then kept an eye on the clock. For me it was 1:30 PM that I could finally release it. I expected a brass band to start playing, but it was uneventful.

Then, I fell asleep and had a very very long nap. I am tired, and hope that tomorrow will not bring more side effects. 5 more to go on this first go-around of GEMDOCE. It was not even near what I had feared.

The nurse had suggested I bring a blanket. I brought a super comfy throw and it was perfect. It relaxed me as soon as I put it over myself. - like a touch of home. I have already put it into the laundry. It will be ready for next week.
Some very special women friends who had gone through breast cancer put together some goody bags for me to take with me - fluffy socks, a devotional book, a sudoku book, hard candies, chocolates... I felt good having some of that with me, but didn't need any of it the first time. I didn't relax that much because i kept expecting things to take a bad turn, but although uncomfortable and not my first choice for how to spend a couple of hours, it wasn't terrible.

What has impressed me is the number of friends whose cancer stories came out when they heard about my situation. Otherwise, I would have no idea what they had gone through. They shared to be encouraging. One older friend shared two really scary cancer stories. I wondered why she did that, and then she explained that if she could get through that, I would also get through mine. It helped. I guess it was my chat group before I found this group. I look forward to having this in the rearview mirror and sharing a success story.