-
complications after turbt
Hi all,
In oct of this year i received a ct scan at a large teaching hospital because of stomach issues. The ct results showed a 1.5 by 1 cm lesion in my bladder. Later in october i had an experienced bladder cancer dr perform a turbt at this hospital. I received mito c chemo directly after the turbt. I was released from the hospital on the same day with no cath. Path came back as low grade non invasive. One week after turbt i started having terrible pain in my pelvis ( right side-bladder tumor was on right side) when urinating. Went back to hosp and had another ct done. Scan showed thickening of the submucosa and mucosa in the defect on the right posterial bladder wall, with no evidence of perferation.. My dr explained this as urine was entering the wall, in the area of surgery where the wound was, and causing painful spasms when urinating. The dr said this was normal, but wanted a cath put in for a week to aid with the healing process. After one week with the cath, i saw another uro (2nd opinion, and now primary dr) who agreed with original drs explanation. This dr ordered a cystogram before the cath could come out. The cystogram showed no perforation, only a very small area where the dye could leak into the defect in the wound. The new dr and the old dr agreed that the cath could come out. The cath was in for one week. After the cath was removed, i only had very mild discomfort when urinating. After three more days, the pain is back in my pelvis, but not nearly as bad as before the cath. Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of problems after turbt. My drs expect my bladder to heal fully, but i worry i am going to have a weak area in the wall of my bladder, and with the way ta tumors come frequently to the same area, i am nervous this will complicate things.
-
10 Replies
-
Hi all
Wanted to give an update. After cath came out i finished antibiotics for the next five days then had a urine culture done. It came back positive for enterococcus uti. Considering i had a culture done just prior to cath (two weeks after surgery) and this was negative, im assuming the infection is from cath not surgery. I read up on this uti and i guess its pretty nasty. Uro prescribed macrobid for a week, then retest. This probably explains my delayed discomfort after cath was taken out. Has anyone dealt with this type of uti?
Anyway, i hope everyone is doing well.
Jmp
-
Fight,
I was told by my URO if the first biopsy shows high grade and/or a
questionable sample he automatically does a second TURB. Just heads up.
DX 5/6/2008 TAG3 papillary tumor .5 CM in size. 2 TURBS followed by 6 instillations of BCG weekly with a second round of 6 after a 6 week wait.[quote=”jmp” post=47449]I forgot to add that i was a 42 year old male, and has never had any bladder issue prior beside on one occasion two years ago when i had some blood in urine. GP didnt think anything of it and said it was dehydration.
Drs didnt say anything was abnormal with the healin after turbt, but one nurse at the new dr made mention that the surgeon ” took a pretty good scoop out”. Dont know why a good scoop would have to come out since surgeon said tumor came out easy. If pain doesnt subside in a week ill be contacting uro. Has anyone had any experience with follow up surgery to help mend a wound that is not healing properly.[/quote]
I am a 66 yo female with a somewhat similar situation. 2 yeas ago I had once a blood clot in urine. I had a urine test in a couple of days and no blood or cancer cells were found. So I forgot about it. I was in remission from my lymphoma at that time, but I was having regular ct scan checkups. And they picked up that my lymphoma is back (last year) and something in my bladder. I am at the end of my lymphoma treatment which is going well at this point. Recently I had a cystoscopy that showed a tumor similar size as yours. And the preliminary diagnosis from looking at it is like yours. So I am reading your story and I plan to ask my doctor to take a big scoop because if the sample is not sufficient they will need to go back again. They need to see the good margines. My doc wants to do a smaller scoop and if it’s not enough he will need to do that again. I think it’s better to endure it once. Anyway, I plan to discuss this with him again.
I know you are still probably shell shocked by the bc diagnosis. Congrats that nothing was found on the other issue, but see it as a stoke of luck that it lead to an early bc diagnosis. The earlier it is found, the better chances of the best possible outcome from treatment.
I hope your pain level steadily decreases in the coming days. We will look forward to hearing your next cysto results!
Best wishes… CatherineTURBT 1/21/10 at age 55
Dx: T2aN0M0 Primary Bladder Adenocarcinoma
Partial Cystectomy 2/25/10
Vanderbilt Medical Center
Nashville, TN
Thank you to all for your comments. I dont know alot about bladder cancer, so i really appreciate all of your feed back. I was originally being tested for digestive problems and/or neuroendocriine tumors which were not found, so you can understand how the issue with my bladder came out of no where.
Thanks again for the insight and i wish you all the best. I will let you know how this turns out at my first cysto.
I am sorry that you have to be here, but I am glad to tell you that your prognosis is the best you could have got, when it comes to bladder cancer!
I can only second the others. There is no sign of any complication in your story. You did have an open sore in your bladder after the TURB. Where your body keeps your urine. Of course it hurts as hell! My experience is that it takes 4-5 weeks to heal after a TURB. If you get Mitomycin C afterwords, probably a little longer. When the scabs comes of, after 2-3 weeks, you will notice some blood in the urine, and it gets worse for a while before it gets better again.
Niklas12-12 Diagnosis
13-1 Turb TAG1
13-5 Turb Ta low grade, multiple
13-10 Turb TaG2, multiple
13-11 Mitomycin 8 weeks + 6 month
15-01 Turb
I echo what the other ladies have said. In my case I was warned after my first TURB that I would probably pass some large clots a couple of weeks post-because he needed to do a “big scoop” to get good margins making sure enough tissue was taken for a good biopsy. If I wasn’t warned about it I would have freaked out. It does take awhile to heal, just “listen” to your body meaning your body/bladder if symptoms were to worsen call your URO as spasms and pain should be about over. It is possible you could have a UTI which should be able to confirm or disprove via a urine test.
DX 5/6/2008 TAG3 papillary tumor .5 CM in size. 2 TURBS followed by 6 instillations of BCG weekly with a second round of 6 after a 6 week wait.
Sorry to hear about your problem. It is always awful to have pain and discomfort like this. I would be encouraged that it does seem to be improving…if slowly. Believe it or not, the nurse’s comment about taking a “good scoop” out is GOOD news. This means that the samples that the urologist sent to the pathology lab were large enough for him to determine that it was, indeed, low grade and that it had not spread into the muscle or beyond. Often it is necessary to do a second TURB a few weeks later to get MORE tissue for analysis.
I don’t think that there is any possibility that they will go back in and ‘sew up’
the lesion. It may take a while to heal, but the lining should be as good as new when it does.It is indeed good news that it is low grade. Just remember that bladder cancer does tend to come back and be scrupulous about having those every-three-month cystos!
Sara Anne
Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
BCG; BCG maintenance
Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
Forum Moderator
I forgot to add that i was a 42 year old male, and has never had any bladder issue prior beside on one occasion two years ago when i had some blood in urine. GP didnt think anything of it and said it was dehydration.
Drs didnt say anything was abnormal with the healin after turbt, but one nurse at the new dr made mention that the surgeon ” took a pretty good scoop out”. Dont know why a good scoop would have to come out since surgeon said tumor came out easy. If pain doesnt subside in a week ill be contacting uro. Has anyone had any experience with follow up surgery to help mend a wound that is not healing properly.
Hello and welcome to our forum. I’m sure it was quite a shock to get scanned for stomach issues and come out with a bladder cancer diagnosis as well. It’s probably little comfort when you first hear those words but if you have to become a bc patient, low-grade non-invasive is the most favorable diagnosis and it is very treatable.
You have certainly had some unexpected issues after your TURBT. I have only had one and had nothing like you have experienced. I know there are other members who have had multiple TURBTs and I hope that some of them will add their own posts here for you. Have the doctors offered any explanation as to WHY the area in your bladder has not healed over? Did you have a bladder wash of mytomicin C after your TURBT? It is usually well tolerated but some may have a reaction to it.
I wish I had better info to offer. We are glad you are here and please feel free to post any other questions you may have.
Best wishes… CatherineTURBT 1/21/10 at age 55
Dx: T2aN0M0 Primary Bladder Adenocarcinoma
Partial Cystectomy 2/25/10
Vanderbilt Medical Center
Nashville, TNSign In to reply.
