Home › Forums › All Categories › Newly Diagnosed, New To The Forum › TURBT- what to expect

  • purrrkat

    Member
    October 13, 2016 at 10:23 pm

    Hi Madrigal11,

    TURBT recovery time varies greatly between people, I’ve found.

    In my case, I had the surgery on a Wednesday and returned to work the following Monday. But by Tuesday it was clear that I needed more recuperation time. My job involves mostly sitting, and sitting was painful. But after taking off work the following Wednesday thru Sunday I was fine to work the following Monday. It took about 6 weeks before I felt like I hadn’t had the procedure, but I was functioning at 100% roughly 10 days after.

    Good luck.

  • Madrigal11

    Member
    October 13, 2016 at 9:59 pm

    Wow, that long? My doctors office has not communicated the amount of time I will need yet.

  • dougg

    Member
    October 13, 2016 at 1:02 am

    Doug was usually out of work a couple of weeks after a TURBT.

    Anita
    Forum Moderator
    Caregiver

  • sara.anne

    Member
    October 12, 2016 at 1:18 am

    Hello and welcome to the Forum! I can remember when I was first suspected of having bladder cancer and the multitude of questions I had.

    Another Forum poster had a similar question recently about what to expect from a TURB and here is how I answered him:

    The TURB (transurethral resection of the bladder) is both a way to remove as much of the suspected tumor as possible and a way to obtain tissue to send to the pathologist for a complete diagnosis. It is done as an outpatient but under general anesthesia. After the TURB the urologist may have a pretty good idea of what you might be facing, but the complete picture will not be available until he and you get the pathologist’s report….and this can take up to a week or so. Immediately after the TURB the urologist will probably wash the bladder with mitomycin, which is a chemo agent. How you will be feeling after the TURB depends on a lot of things, including how much tissue the urologist needs to “scrape” or cut out, how deeply he needs to go, and the location of the samples he takes. In my case, I just woke up and went home and resumed normal activities. Sometimes, and more often with males, the patient may go home with a catheter which is taken out in a day or so. You may want to plan to take at least the next day off from work, “just in case.”

    Feel free to ask any other questions you may have, and someone will try to answer!

    Good luck to you

    Sara Anne

    Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
    BCG; BCG maintenance
    Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
    Forum Moderator

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