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Question about testing
I’m just wondering what you all think of this.. when someone is diagnoised with bladder cancer (any kinda cancer really) regardless of how minor the doctors “think” it is,,,don’t you think it would be wise to get your whole body checked (MRI,Cat Scan,Bone Scan) to be ABSOLUTELY sure the cancer hasn’t spread elsewhere?
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16 Replies
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Hi Jeanette,
That sounds like your husband had a T1 tumor since it invaded the lamin propria. The doctor would have been wise to treat more aggressively, be more careful. Don’t know if a CT or MRI at diagnosis would have changed the outcome at 3 yrs though…
CTs are sometimes used for intitial staging but I don’t hear about MRIs getting used for it, only for when things get more serious.
I’m sorry about the way things went.
Wendy
PS May I suggest that you post any future messages under the section for metastatic cancer? It might attract more people dealing with the same issues.
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Hi Elaine,
Sorry I didn’t see your question on the 4th. That was only two days home from the hospital and I guess I still had some cranial cobwebs from the anesthesia. ::)
Anyway, my path report was T2, High Grade, Minimal invasion into the muscle and no lymph node involvement. I was given the cat scan and blood work before the TURB and the bone scan and chest X-Ray after the TURB.
I had my surgery on Oct. 19th. and I had an ileal conduit and am having trouble finding the right bag but they assure me it takes time and all will be fine. I know it will all be good in the end. That is one thing cancer does for you. It changes your perspective and gives you patience so I just leave it up to God. He is better at all of this than I am anyway.
I am wishing you the best and hope all goes well for you.
Jean -
Alyssa,
the diagnoised was “grade 2 Transitional Cell Carcinoma with foclal invasion into the lamina propia, no muscle invasion is reported” thats word for word from the dotors report, what it means I don’t really know. we only saw a urologist no oncologist at the time..but the doctor made it sound to us like BCG would cure it.. we did ask for other test but we were told they weren’t needed…. -
Hi Jeanette
I am so sorry to hear about your husband. What was the original pathology, ta or t1, low or high grade and was there Carcinoma in situ? I am also wondering why they did not do more tests. Did he see a urologist oncologist or just a urologist?
Alyssa
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Elaine,
thanks for asking. right now my husband is doing chemotherapy it is kicking his ass (which leads us to believe that it is kicking the cancers ass too) he does his treatments in one month cycles,(once a week) 1st week is cisplatin and gemzar 2nd and 3rd week is gemzar only 4th week he has off. the 1st cycle took about 7 weeks beause he got so very sick from the first treatment.. after the 2nd treatment his blood count was to low so they had to wait.. he just had his 1st treatment of the 2nd cycle (cisplatin and gemzar), he feels sick but not as sick as he did after the first one he is suppose to get his 2nd treatment tommorrow i sure hope he is up for it, sorry if all that was confusing,, we do have an oncologist we like and as far as i know the treatments he gets are very aggressive,,,he doesn’t live each day in pain he has had some good weeks so far. and believe me,, we do cherish each other and do try and live each day to the fullest without making cancer our number one thought -
MY insurance Humana one always takes at least 50 percent off the invoice fron the docs and hospital all of them. Don
Hanging in there!
Hi,
Jeannette you are neither of you guilty of anything – that just isn’t how cancer works! Cancer is seriously random and relatively inexplicable – if oncologists knew what they were doing they would have a better rate of cure – they are by deffinition disaster managers and as for General Practisioners – they can only do their best, all too often wholely inadequate to the enormity of the problem.
Out of every 5 people you pass in the street 2 are likely to have had or get cancer and in the lottery of life it varies from something humiliating to something threatening – that is why Challenge begins with a big ‘C’.
All is not lost for your husband sometimes, as inexplicably as it started Cancer inexplicity vanishes, but it obviously not wise to plan on such optimism. Your position is very very Challenging and it would seem that the greatest part of the Challenge is to enjoy, together, every moment you can and make sure that you never let Cancer have your husband whilst by all means understand your husband has Cancer. The aim is to make the Cancer secondary!
Good luck and go for quality not quantity.
As a friend of mine who when 49 moved from challenge to terminal I asked his, since he was the same age as I, what had he learned from Cancer – without a moments thought he answered ‘Life is too short for cheap wine’.
Good luck to you both and may I commend most of The South African wines as they seem to get it right every year unlike France where they only get it right occasionally and call it vintage ;)
How is he doing now? What are his treatments? Do you have access to a good oncologist and hospital? I am hoping for the best for you both. elaine
elaine f.
dob- 1956
female- Indiana, USA
caucasian
smoked cigarettes- 1975-?
5cm-noninvasive- low grade- papillary
TURB- Sept 11,2006
my husbands cancer (or should i say metastised cancer) was found in aug.. back at the end of March he started having back aches, he thought he had injured his back snow mobiling. the pain would come and go, come june the pain got so bad he went to the doctors, they did an x-ray (found nothing) so doctor recommended physical therapy and gave him some pain meds.(didn’t work) went back to the doctor and he made an appointment for my husband to see a spine specialist in aug. in the meantime i was calling the doctor telling him my husband was in unbearable pain so he decided to do an MRI. it showed abnormalities and they proceeded to do a bone scan and thats when we got the news that the cancer was in his bones
Greg, I will read the book! Always up for a good read. :)
I understand just an inkling of the state run medical problem. I am on medicare and even though my medical decisions should never revolve around that, I occationally run into a doctor who questions it or won’t take me as a patient because medicare doesn’t reimburse their full rate.
I have brothers who work at large factories and they are stuck with HMO programs where they are only allowed to get medical help in the town they live in. They would not be able to go to Indy like I did should they get bladder cancer or any other cancer so I guess I am still better off than they.
I totally understand your worry. Two months of waiting for a procedure is too much for the mind. They finally did an abdominal ct scan on me after being sick for seven months worrying about all kinds of cancers and it was a roller coaster with days of thinking I was ok and they would find something simple to thinking I was dying of colon or some other cancer. They found the bladder cancer by accident when they were looking for ovarian cancer back in August. As far as I know my problem, now, is not cancer but motility in the stomach…. plus now the baldder cancer.
I hope you will let us know as soon as you can how you come out after your proceedures. And you will be in my prayers also. I don’t know what your background is but I do enjoy your posts and your support of everyone here on this board. I will send possitive vibes your way on Monday. Take care, elaine :)
elaine f.
dob- 1956
female- Indiana, USA
caucasian
smoked cigarettes- 1975-?
5cm-noninvasive- low grade- papillary
TURB- Sept 11,2006
Hi,
I note you live in Indiana Elaine, I will always remember the opening section of Bach’s other book ;) NOT Jonathan Livingstone Seagull – it starts out ‘In The State of Indianna was born a Messiah ….’ the story of a Messiah who doesn’t want to be a Messiah he wants to be a barnstorm pilot so he writes a manual for a friend of his on how to be a Messiah – Great fun with some lovely ideas based on the Taillard du Chardin principle of if the human mind can conceive and believe then the human brain can achieve. ;)
Doesn’t work, nice idea, but I’ve still got cancer! :(
I’m never sure which gives me the most angst whether it is the cancer or endlessly tring to deal with the NHS. All too easy to give up, but then I get the feeling that is what they are hoping! :-/
Please explain the logic – I am diagnosed as needing TURBT & TURP, both mild surface problems on August 31st. – so they eventually get around to booking me in for tomorrow 6th. November! In over 2 months what makes them think they haven’t done further damage, spread or penetrated the lining? :'(
With a tax funded, Government administered Devolved irresponsibility running a health service it is clear that all too many decisions are made based on economics and all too few based on medicine! :-[
At what stage does the State consider the patient expendable? A budgetary liability?
I am as scared of the incompetence and dishonesty of politicians as I am cancer!
>:(
Jeannette, that is terrible. I don’t understand why more tests aren’t done. In my opinion, it is worth the little extra money for the tests to assure something like this doesn’t happen. How did you finally catch it? I will sure say prayers for you and your husband. They did not do other tests on me at the time of my bladder cancer diagnosis but they have run ct scans since because of this stomach problem I am fighting. I will certainly ask my urologist when I go in for my recheck in December. You are in my thoughts. Take care, elaine.
elaine f.
dob- 1956
female- Indiana, USA
caucasian
smoked cigarettes- 1975-?
5cm-noninvasive- low grade- papillary
TURB- Sept 11,2006
when my husband was diagnoised we did ask the doctor about testing to see if there was cancer anywhere else,he said it wasn’t needed because the cancer was superficial and contained to the bladder. it made sense to us at the time. unfortunately 3yrs later the bladder cancer is spread thoughout his bones, and his chances of long term survival are slim (he is 45) so we went from something that is cureable to this in a matter of 3 yrs (yes he did go ever 3 months from the cysto),i just wish we would have done more when he was first diagnoised,and i am recommending that you talk with your doctors about more testing.. we live in the U.S.
Hi,
could I ask people for some help here to make it easier – would you mind including a signature outlining who and where you are [as per mine below].
All too often we are not comparing like with like – medicine varies from Country to Country and as we all know it varies dependent on which medical plan people are on.
With BC or for that matter ANY Cancer the need is the same but the options are predicated by location and medical plans.
It is an unfortunate fact of life that Western World medicine offers more option so location matters – also many people across the USA do not have Health Cover – what of them. In Britain we have the NHS but it is starting to collapse because there are more votes in Boob inplants and Politically Correct medicine – rectal repair for perverts, gender reasignment, in vitro etc. etc. than in keeping hospitals clean and practicing health giving medicine.
A signature would help us raise the standards everywhere because in discussion we would have a whip to use against failing areas of some of the failing systems.
With my track record! I have not had a full scan and after 7 years had my first chest XRay 10 days ago – seems clear so I am now pushing for a scan but it is an uphill battle.
Lets all compare like with like where possible and learn how we can make our sytems better.
Jean, what was your pathology report, if I could ask? Did you have superficial? Did they do the tests before they knew the aggressiveness, etc.? I was just wondering. I was lucky and just had a low grade tumor and did not have those tests. elaine
elaine f.
dob- 1956
female- Indiana, USA
caucasian
smoked cigarettes- 1975-?
5cm-noninvasive- low grade- papillary
TURB- Sept 11,2006Sign In to reply.
