I am a 64 year old male and 3 years ago I was diagnosed with papillary Bladder Cancer, had a resection, Mytomicin treatment and 1 treatment of BCG. The Mytomicin and BCG gave me so much trouble the treatments were discontinued and have had no treatments since. I have been 3 years with no reoccurances, but the problem is that my bladder has never really healed and is still very "angry" looking. I still have some discomfort but no one seems to know why. At my last check up, the fish tests came back positive for cancer, but the doctor could not get a good sample for the biopsy and that came back negative for cancer. The pathologist feels there is a chance it has progressed to a more aggressive stage in another location. No one seems to know why the bladder itself seems to be in a continual state of deteriation and the lining bleeds if it is even touched. Has anyone else had this experience? If so, what can be done to improve the overall health of the bladder itself? My doctor feel it might be IC on top of it all and wants to put me on Elmeron, but I understand that could take months before we know if it is working and in the mean time if the cancer has actually returned he will require that I go back on BCG. This is probably what created the problem in the first place, so it may help the cancer but will almost certainly ruin my bladder once and for all. If anyone has had a similar situation or knows of a doctor very adept in treating these situations, please let me know.
