Glen:
Glad you found us; sorry you had to. The transurethral resection of the bladder tumour (TURBT) has been staged and graded by a pathologist and as Jack says your daughter should get a copy of that so she can understand exactly what is going on. High grade, non muscle invasive does recur – mine recurred 6 times and sadly did progress after 2 1/2 years to muscle invasive disease and I had my bladder removed 2 years ago. Life is great, but different. The good news is that most do not progress but they do recur, particularly the high grade.
BCG is an immuno treatment that is instilled directly into the bladder itself and so does not tend to cause the same side effects as if chemo was given systemically. It is effective and good examples like Jack are the living proof!
I echo Jack’s recommendation that you see a urologic oncologist as opposed to a generalist urologist because these uro-oncs deal with cancer of the bladder all the time and that is important.
1. Get the path report.
2. Make sure her doc is a cancer uro.
3. Ask a lot of your questions on this site because many here will help, encourage, support having been in the same circumstances.
4. Never let your daughter miss a uro appointment from now on. It’s a lifetime of checkups to ensure the cancer remains all clear down the road.
5. Read all the helpful articles you can both on this site and on reputable cancer centre sites. “Know the enemy.”
6. Keep us posted – “Know your friends.” You’ve just become part of our family, not a family you wanted, but a darn good one to have in your corner.
Greg
