Afraid and needing advice

Both my TURB's were out patient, and went home with a foley for 3 days.

Jim

I am so happy that Mike, Pat and George have added their advice. You are in very good hands with them. I did see Dr. Lockhart/Moffitt for a second opinion. He came highly recommended, and I liked him a lot. Since I had to go the BCG route, I transferred over to Dr. Wade Sexton. When I find valuable information, I print it out and take with me. You and your husband are your best advocates, and you are gathering a lot of information, which is the right road to be traveling right now.
If possible, maybe you could make an appointment with your Uro, in the next day or two, write down all your concerns and questions - then make a decision. If you stay with our Uro to do the TURB, then follow-up with a second opinion @ Moffitt or Miami, and take all the information with you, pathology, slides, reports. As an extra back-up I had my pathology and slides sent to John Hopkins thru my Uro's office.
Nancy

Its not unusual for them to schedule asap especially since this has been ongoing. And i agree its mind boggling..you really don't have a chance to get your ducks in a row. He would not have done a biopsy during cystoscopy...ouch...
I had the same thing happen to me only i presented with gross hematuria and within a week i dutifully followed my internists recommendation for a uro and had a TURB locally. I was about as dumb as you can get about bladder cancer..never heard of it. Just scared. Once my brain cells connected after the procedure i started researching top cancer centers and top uro/surgeons in the field. There were none close to me. I was fortunate in that i have a PPO and could go whereever and i chose Memorial Sloan in NYC for my second opinion. I also got one of the top uros in the country who took one look at my slides and said "re-turb" which he schedule for 3 days later. He is in the OR 4 days a week and probably does about 20 TURBS a day...and over 90 reconstructions a year. I only had one very small tumor which was invasive but he got it all plus the margins. I had no bleeding afterwards so the catheter came out about l/2 hr after i woke up and i peed in a cup and left the building an hour later. He doesn't believe in indwelling catheters unless there is bleeding and he rarely has any. My local uro on the other hand insisted on 3 days with the catheter...to which i pulled out at day 2 as it was driving me nuts!! Protocol depends on your doctor and the institution. I personally had no ill effects or pain with the surgery and went shopping the next day and on a plane the day after. Indwelling caths have shown to cause infection and has been a big problem at hospitals world wide..new guidelines have been now written about that.
Again...the skill of the surgeon makes all the difference. If i had my wits about me when all this first happened i would have gone to MSK for first opinion.
pat

Hello to all again. I am here to acknowledge that I am indeed reading your replies.
Pat...your information was very helpful! Thank you. You are 100 percent correct, men will take the same road..and need the cattle prod to often incite questions and new direction.
Our urologist really did jump right into the surgery. I am not sure if he did this because he knows the seriousness of the mass (though the mass was not biopsied last Friday during the Cystoscopy) or, that he had a surgery opening. What I do know is he gave him a surgery date only 6 days after diagnosis. Not much time to think. The uro doesn't seem to waste any time with any of this since we met him for the first time on 4/20. I hope that explains why I am in a bit of a panic mode. Who knows! What I do know is I want the BEST for my husband. I recognize the importance of getting all the margins when it comes to a tumor.

As for the TURBT, the uro says my husband will have an "irrigation catheter" in place when he awakens...and if there are no complications, he will only have to stay in the hospital for one night, but will go home with a foley catheter. He said he should be fine to go to work within a week. Does this sound right to all of you pro's?
Did you have an irrigation cath?