SKIPPING BCG FOR A WEEK

Gina,

Reason for skipping is personal and not because I had any complications.

hi,

my dad just finished his course of bcg about three weeks ago. he had to skip one week because the refrigerator at the md's office lost power overnight and all the meds were ruinied. i'm not sure if just the power went out or the refrigerator broke but my dad had to skip one week of bcg for this reason. the md's office said it was not a problem to skip one week, they sometimes had people skip due to illness. my dad had a cysto and biopsy last week and all was clear, they could not find anything. hope this helps.

claudia

hi rosemary!

When I asked a local Uro "Why is it important to stay on schedule with BCG treatments?" ...His answer was, "Because that's the way the research was conducted."

Since, as with most questions with Bladder Cancer, no one seems to be able to give us a definitive answer, I don't think I would worry about it too much. Just stay on schedule as much as is possible with subsequent treatments, and take good care of yourself in every other way that you can.

Best regards,
Rosemary

Hi, Tim!!

Sol
I don't know if I'm correct or not. It's just my opinion based on my own findings when undergoing BCG. If you do miss a week then do it feeling it's the right thing to do. Otherwise if the BCG does fail you'll blame yourself for delaying it. I guess it also depends on your reasons for delaying it as indicated above.

tim

Hi Sol, I found myself asking the very same question during my initial 6 wk treatment for T1G3 BC, and found that skipping a treatment was no big deal to my oncologist. If memory serves me well, I believe Dr. Lamm addressed this question on his website and that as far as I can recall, it didn't seem to be a problem. During my maintenance round of treatments, also scheduled for 6 weeks, not only did I have 3 treatment postponements, but the last 3 treatments ended up being 1/2 doses as well because I had some significant reactions to the BCG.

Sol, I have had two cysto's now (Dec 18/07 & Apr. 1/08)and am very happy to report that both times I've been BC free. My personal experience suggests that taking oncovite + green tea + pomegranate juice, and lots of H20 sure didn't hurt. I don't know if my experience will work for you since we are all different. I wish you well with the treatments and hope your oncologist explains the various aspects of your treatment regime to you.

Take care,

Gordo