BCG vaccine and non invasive papillary cancer

Posted by mnasrich612 @mnasrich612, Aug 28, 2023

I had a 3 cm papillary non invasive cancer removed by turbt. Dr wants to start me on BCG. Is this the best treatment??

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Hi @mnasrich612, I sure hope so! It's the treatment I've been taking since my diagnosis 11.15.21. I believe I've had about 22 instillations of BCG now. I, like you, had surgery to remove the cancer and TURBT. I also have papillary non muscle invasive bladder cancer, but mine is the aggressive kind :(( I won't have 3 more rounds of BCG until December since I graduated from every 3 mos to every 6. Saying lots of prayers it doesn't come back. Best of luck to you with all.

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Welcome @mnasrich612, I hope you saw the helpful reply from @talltxlady. Did you decide to go ahead with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) treatnent? How are you doing?

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Thanks very much for your comments. I has 2 installations the last being yesterday. It was beyond painful and when I came home I was passing a lot of bld for a couple hours. The regular nurse was not there and a medical technician who was not at nurse did the catherization
At one point during the procedure she Said she was having difficulty getting past my prostrate. Does she have to get by or thru my prostrate to get to my bladder. I have to go back next Friday and I am terrified

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Mine is also non invasive and high grade meaning it is very aggressive

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I have 4 more instillations to do. I find it very painful . Do they have to go thru the prostrate to get to the bladder
Thanks for your response

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I've had 12 total instillations done. The first 9 were pretty well tolerated but the last three were painful for about 3 or 4 hours after discharging the meds. There is a slight pink hue and I have to wear something or wet my pants.
I can't control the contractions. I told this to the nurses and they said some people get sensitive to the meds and that I could take a half dose it I choose to. I think I'll take the full dose and deal will it. The nurses doing the procedure vary in talent. Some sting while some are barely noticable. The last one I didn't feel a thing, why can't they all go like that? They also say that it's harder on men due to the prostate. Good luck with your fight.

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@mnasrich612

I have 4 more instillations to do. I find it very painful . Do they have to go thru the prostrate to get to the bladder
Thanks for your response

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@mnasrich612, how are you doing? Have you had more treatments and were they also painful?

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I had my 4th BCG instillation yesterday
The catherizattion was painful but tolerable
Last night I had a high fever felt sick. Took two Tylenol. The high fever seems to have triggered a tooth ache???
Now Saturday fever and tooth ache have considerably ebbed
Everytime is the same. Pain of catherization followed by high fever for a couple day's

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@mnasrich612

I had my 4th BCG instillation yesterday
The catherizattion was painful but tolerable
Last night I had a high fever felt sick. Took two Tylenol. The high fever seems to have triggered a tooth ache???
Now Saturday fever and tooth ache have considerably ebbed
Everytime is the same. Pain of catherization followed by high fever for a couple day's

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Curcumin might be something you should consider.
I diagnosed with stage II muscle invasive bladder cancer in march 2022. I researched many treatments and found this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4699625/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.7225
The problem with curcumin is that it is not easily absorbed into the blood when taken as oral supplements and they don't last long in the body.
Recently something new was added to address this and I used it. I took 1000 mg 95% curcuminoids wit black pepper extract about every 4-6 hours during chemotherapy.. Curcumin is now known to kill cancer cells. In August 2022 I tested cancer free and still am. I currently take curcumin daily and also use Natera DNA blood tests to assure no recurrence of my cancer.

BCG instillations are immune therapy which attempts to build you own immune system in hope that it will be able to fight the cancer. I believe that it does not directly kill cancer cells. Seem like your are going through much unnecessary pain and suffering without solving the problem.

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@mnasrich612

I had my 4th BCG instillation yesterday
The catherizattion was painful but tolerable
Last night I had a high fever felt sick. Took two Tylenol. The high fever seems to have triggered a tooth ache???
Now Saturday fever and tooth ache have considerably ebbed
Everytime is the same. Pain of catherization followed by high fever for a couple day's

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@mnasrich612, I thought I'd check in. How are you doing?

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