A tumor at the bladder neck could cause blockage and has to go, and like others have already said a biopsy needs to be done, and if the tumor is grade 1, Ta, that would be a best case scenario.
I'm also from NJ, and my sister is the one with bladder cancer (me and another sister had breast cancer). Good ol' NJ! Must be the water or something. My sister goes to Sloan even though she has a very non-aggressive type of cancer and no recurrence for these last 8 yrs or so. Our other sister went to Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick, I think it's the only cancer center in NJ. She was fighting breast cancer but didn't make it, so we did not want to go back to RWJ due to the sad memories.
Yes, this forum and our email group are younger than the average blc patient, and women are overly represented; thus we're not a standard cross-section of the actual bladder cancer community at large.
My second cousin was dxed with blc at age 88, she had a high grade, aggressive kind of tumor and received Mitomycin, one dose, post-TUR. She handled it well and it did keep the recurrences at bay for a while; this treatment is said to delay recurs up to 2 yrs (blc recurs very frequently, up to 70% of the time). It is on the way to becoming standard world-wide. Other drugs can be used aside from Mito for this, there is more info about non-invasive tumors and intravesical chemo on the main site, if you want to read more:
blcwebcafe.org/superficialblca.asp
and
blcwebcafe.org/intravesicalchemo.asp
My sister received a CT upon dx, it's pretty standard as staging.
About the anxiety issues, that's tricky when someone is elderly, the normal drugs like valium and ativan cause different side effects than with younger people, but a good anesthetist will know how to best deal with this kind of thing. Make sure you get some advice on how to help her get through this very trying period.
Tell her she is not alone, there are at least half a million blc survivors walking around the U.S., this is a survivable diagnosis.
All the best,
Wendy
