Bladder Cancer Shows Up

In 2020, I noticed I had blood in my urine a couple of times. I also had passed some tissue of some kind a few times. My primary care physician had me do a urine test and a blood test and an X-ray. He concluded there was nothing seriously wrong.

I was still seeing my urologist every 6 months for follow ups on my prostate cancer. During my next appointment, I mentioned the blood and tissue in my urine. My urologist answered unequivocally, “This means we need an CT scan and maybe a cystoscopy.”

Well, to make a long story short, there were indicators I had bladder cancer. We followed up the CT scan with a cystoscopy and discovered a couple of tumors in my bladder. So we scheduled a hospital appt for a procedure to get them out of there.

When my doctor actually went in during the procedure, he discovered a whole bunch of small tumors on the bladder wall. He scraped them all out.

So now I’m doing something called BCG treatment. I went in every week for 6 weeks and had my doctor squirt this BCG into my bladder. I am now taking a 2 month break from that. Then we start maintenance treatments. That means 3 treatments for 3 weeks, then 6 months off. Then we repeat.

There is an 85% chance these tumors will return which triggers this whole process all over again. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I may very well be doing this for the rest of my life. I hope I’m wrong.

It is very possible I will not die of bladder cancer as long as we stay ahead of the tumors. I have joked that modern cancer treatments will make sure you’re not dead, you’ll just wish you were.

its not really that bad. I have a great doctor and lots of free time. And Medicare pays the bills, so life is okay.