Welcome! Your story resonates with me, because with one exception, it could have been mine!
I had UTI after UTI for about a year. I would call my primary care guy and he would phone in a Cipro prescription. Went for my "annual" (it had been three years) pelvic at a women's clinic for a change and saw a wonderful nurse practitioner. I just happened to mention the UTI's. She told me in no uncertain terms that if you have more than 3 in a year you get yourself to a urologist. She even recommended a urology practice (and told me which were the good guys and which the "old farts" to avoid!) and told me that the next UTI I should call them. I did and the rest, as they say, is history.
As you have guessed, no UTI. I had a lot of burning and urgency which I had thought was due to the non-existent UTI. The only difference in my case was that I did not, and never have, had blood in my urine.
I really think that the nurse practitioner saved my life, or at a minimum my bladder. I was diagnosed with papillary bladder cancer with some "areas of irritation." A second TURB (biopsy) a few weeks later determined that the area of irritation was CIS...a high grade form of bladder cancer. I had BCG treatments and now, almost 8 years out, and healthy and bladder cancer-free.
The CT-urogram should tell the urologist if there is a suspicious area in the bladder or, less likely, in the kidney. If there is in the bladder, she will probably want to do a TURB (transurethral resection of the bladder) where, under general anesthesia usually as an outpatient, she will remove whatever tumor she might see and send samples to a pathologist for analysis. The pathologist's report is the only definitive diagnosis as to whether it is cancer or not, the grade (how fast it is dividing) and whether it is localized or has gone into the lower layers of the bladder.
The take-home of this tale is first, that it will be a while before you know exactly what you might be facing, and, second, that if it IS bladder cancer this is something that can be treated.
Please keep us informed...we are interested in you!! Many of us have been there/done that and would be glad to try to answer any questions you might have.
Good luck!
Sara Anne
