Pain/discomfort

[mpjfarms]

My brother has had 24 bcg treatments. Every time he goes for his checkup every three months he gets the all clear- no cancer just red from the treatments. He still has 6 more treatments for prevention to do. Recently after his last treatment he has been having pain and discomfort on his right side. Like bladder discomfort. Sometimes he says he has an urge to go to the bathroom and he doesn’t go. He also get up 3 or 4 times a night. He has been checked for infection and that was clear. Has anyone else experienced this?it has been a month since his treatment and he still has discomfort.

[shelties]

Hi there, I just read your post and it rang an alarm bell for me. I also experienced something similar and actually mentioned it to another specialist I was seeing, so she forwarded a copy of a scan she had done for me. (Lung) She said there was something showing up in my ureter tube, so she knew I was dealing with bladder cancer and felt it should be looked at by my urologist. The long and short of it, I figured he had seen it and wasn’t concerned, but as time went on, I mentioned it to him. It hadn’t been brought to his attention by his support staff. He checked on it and he clearly was panic stricken. He had me in the same day for another scan and then in hospital within a couple days, then surgery shortly after that. The end result; I had a tumor in my ureter tube and ended up having major surgery where he had to replace part of that tube. It was 5 hours in surgery and 2 blood transfusions. Get your brother to insist on a scan to find out what’s going on there immediately. Maybe its’ nothing for him, but just maybe it is something serious.

Good luck and let us know what the outcome is.

Take care.
Lorraine

[Jack Moon]

Side effects of BCG treatments do vary by person. Also many including I found the side effects to be progressive. In my case the 1st 12 treatments was just urgency and burning for about 6-8 hours after the treatment. But from treatment 13-30 completely different story. Urgency could last from 24-72 hours, fatigue lasted through the treatments and bladder spasms would come and go. Not sure when your brother had his last CT scan, but he should discuss the pain he is having with his Uro. The urgency he is encountering seems to be normal for someone that has had 24 treatments.
I wish him all the best going forward and hope the BCG does prevent the cancer from recurring.
BCG = Bladder Cancer Gone
Jack

[KIOWA]

Jack is a brave man. He has tolerated BCG for a long time. I tried it once. I had a series of 8 treatments. Like Jack it was progressive, progressively worse that is. I am one of those who for whatever reason cannot tolerate BCG. I got so sick it was like the worse case of the flu X 10. My doc then tried Valstar and though, painful, it worked. He managed the pain by working with the drug company to formulate an infusion of valstar mixed with Lidocaine. It helped a lot. But as others have said, BCG is highly variable and the only way to know is to try it. But BCG has been found to be far more effective than Valstar which I believe is available only in the U.S.

Kiowa

[Lemongirl]

Hello to all my friends

I am a little lost still how to post replies, etc on the site but here it goes.
Regarding the after shock of BCG, harsh words I am using. I have experienced exactly the same symptoms. Soreness on one side lower area, having to go during night but not really going. I am learning that much of this is actually from anxiety. When I sleep good, everything is good, but when I get worked up, bam!

I am going through all these crazy things as I speak. I had four injections of BCG during Dec and I breezed through them. But here is the catch. You must and I repeat this keep calm, get enough sleep (where you are staying asleep at least six hours straight through). The body must do its healing during sleep. Here I am giving a lecture and at the moment going through hell. oh, well.

I noticed that I felt like crap say a day after my treatment and good for a week and then back to crappy for days or weeks. It all started to make sense that sleep was playing such an important role in this you can’t imagine.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation

Linda

[marysue]

I found listening to relaxing/meditative music while doing treatments and any time I felt anxious really helped keep me more calm and centered.

I too, struggled with mental stress – all the what ifs and in my case I also had to heal from a form of PTSD. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, because of urological birth defects and required surgeries to fix the problem, I had a lot of procedures “down there” and the suppressed memories came roaring back with BC surgery and BCG treatments.

I also do yoga and acupuncture. It took time but I gradually overcame my fears and yes, I still get the jitters going for a cysto exam but at least I can hold myself together and get through it.

I strongly suggest to see if you have a cancer support centre in your area to see if they have any mindfulness type courses. Some people here in Calgary have attended such sessions at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre or Wellspring Calgary. I didn’t because the programs weren’t running at the time I needed them. Failing that, check with your community centre to see if there are any meditation or yoga classes for relaxation.

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