An unofficial poll! Please read!

I've had two TURBTs, first under anesthesia as outpatient procedure; no catheter, went home in a couple of hours, and only problem was bladder spasms for about a day or so (single tumor, and small). Second was done under local in Dr.'s office (2 very tiny, pinhead-size tumors); again, no problems other than spasms. I can't remember what meds I might have taken, but I vaguely remember some kind of painkiller the first time, and that plus an anti-spasmodic the second time. I do think size and number of tumors may make a big difference, and I'm wondering if gender (i.e., presence of enlarged prostate common in guys as they get older) might also play a role in the degree of pain/symptoms after TURBT.

Ann

Have had 3 Turbts, the first was was rough as 3 tumors removed and 1 was large. My Uro will not send you home with a cath, so you stay in hospital unclear urine is clear. Recover was about 10 days. The next 1 was a small tumor recovery about 3 days.
My last Turbt had MMC instilled, the chemo made me very sick for 24 hours, other than that recovery was about 3 days.
Since the Turbt with MMC and BCG treatments including maintenance have been cancer free 28 months.
All the best,
Jack

I've had 3 TURBTs, went home with a cath for 3-5 days for each. No pain, but varying degrees of blood in the urine for about 3 days. No problems after the cath was removed other than a little burning the first time I urinated. No BCG for me as my cancer returned aggressively- R/C and neo March 2nd. Doing good now - still training the neo but making good progress. Good luck to you and your husband.

Andy

I have had 6 TURB-T's in the last 18 months. Last one in January include Mitomycin - second time for Mitomycin. Both times I had Mitomycin, I had spasms and burning for 3 - 4 days, certainly not weeks or months.

Oxybutin really helped calm down the spasms. Burning just went away.

I ended up with a total of 4 TURBT's... not fun any of the times. The cheese grater sounds pleasant! They had me on some pain pills (Vicodin) for a couple of weeks each time and a spasm reducer (Levsin, I think). Those helped a lot. I had a good bit of muscle wall involvement and at one point, the bladder had attached itself on the outside to the inside of my abdominal wall. I think I was a pretty unusual case though. I don't recall having catheters post-op...

I did have major issues with the anesthesia (something about not breathing), so they kept waking me up in the recovery room with Narcan, which counteracts all the pain meds they use during the surgery. So, you wake up with a freshly burned/scraped/cut-up bladder. That was quite painful. I kept telling the anesthesiologists about the problems and the kept doing it again... I was not so happy. Maybe it was all part of their master plan to make me WANT to get that stupid bladder out of my body?

Christine

After my TURB, I was sent home with a cath for 5 days; was told to take Pyridien (sp) tablets that turn the urine orange but help with bladder infections/spasms; I never had any discomfort whatsoever, nor did I have an increase of urgency or frequency. Lucky me.