How Long for Results of Pathology?

[DonnaT]

Hi everyone,

I had my TURBT surgery on May 8 and I am still waiting for pathology results (today is May 22). I am feeling frustrated because without results, I do not know what my treatment path will look like. It’s hard waiting! Is this a normal timeline? My doctor’s assistant simply says she hasn’t received the report yet.

Thanks!

Donna

[Nightingale]

Hi DonnaT,

The timeframe does not appear to be out of the norm.  I’m not sure where you are, but it seems to vary by region.  I would ask your doctor’s assistant, “given your experience in this area, is this timeframe normal?”  Another question could be “When do you suppose the report will arrive?” or “I’m calling back, because I’m curious to know if I can anticipate seeing the report next week?”

I hope this is helpful.

My Best,

[marysue]

Hi DonnaT:

Another way to find out the results would be to go see your GP.  That ‘s what I did.  However, your GP will not be able to tell you what the next steps are.  In Alberta most people are told 7-10 days but many wait longer just simply because the doctors are so busy.  That being said in Alberta we now have Connect Care which lets us see the results online prior to meeting with our doctor.  While that can be helpful in some ways, in others it can cause stress if you don’t understand the report.

You are well within your patient rights to call the urologist’s office to ask for an update and to ask when the report can be expected.  In my experience it is not that the pathologist takes longer to analyze the sample(s), it is simply that the doctors are so damn busy.

That happened to me in 2022. Unknown to me, my pathology was available 2 days post op.  I went to my GP the following week because I had a post op UTI.  He asked if I knew my results and I said no because my urologist was out of town for the next 10 days.  My GP phoned the pathology office and got the results via fax and showed me the report. As mentioned, he was not able to tell me what the next steps were. After I got home, I left a message with my uro’s assistant that I wanted to speak with him when he got back because like everyone else I wanted to know what the next steps were. It was another 2 weeks before I heard back from him. I knew it most likely meant more BCG and I was right.  I was in no rush to start post op treatment because I still needed to heal from the surgery and get over the UTI.

The small comfort that you can take from this is that the cancer is out and bought you some time.  Any next steps are more preventative than anything else.  Hope this helps. I know how hard the wait is.  ((((HUGS))))

[Author]

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