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.