We found out the other day that my mother has a tumor on her bladder. Of course I've been driving myself crazy reading bladder cancer advocacy and information sites. From what I understand, most tumors that are found on the bladder turn out to be cancerous. I did read that usually these tumors can just be sliced off of the bladder lining and removed completely, resulting in the cancer being eliminated - that is *if* the tumor is discovered early. My mother has many health problems (she is disabled and in chronic pain and has severe nerve damage), so her doctors have been attributing her complaints about any urinary tract problems (she's been complaining about symptoms for over a year) to her other problems. A couple of months ago she began peeing liters of pure blood... way too much to be a UTI. From what I've read, this is one of the main symptoms of bladder cancer, and in the event it is cancer, seeing blood in the urine indicates an advanced stage??? Needless to say, I'm incredibly concerned. I guess I just wanted to vent somewhere and am hoping for more information/advice from others who've had similar experiences. I've really just told my husband. My mother doesn't even know the details or statistics... she just knows she's having a tumor removed a week from wednesday. Thanks for reading. I wish I could go to her doctor with her. She's so out of it sometimes, I don't thinks she knows what questions to ask or fully understands what they tell her.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
-kelly
I should add: my mother is in her 60s and was a 3-pack a day smoker for 20+ years. she quick smoking about 5 years ago.