Mother Recently Diagnosed with Bladder Tumor

11 years 7 months ago #42808 by kaeley
Another thing that's frustrating... my mother had back surgery over two years ago. After the surgery, she was having difficulties urinating and a referral was made for a urologist while she was still in the hospital. She was assessed and there was a note on her file that there seemed to be a blockage in the bladder obstructing the urethra, but there was no mention of her needing to follow-up or see another doctor. In the months after that, she began seeing a doctor because she was having recurrent UTIs and was having difficulty urinating. The doctor told her she had a "weak" bladder and would need to catheterize herself so that urine would not sit in the bladder and cause a UTI. The doctor said that she likely had nerve damage from her back problems. Given her symptoms now and that her tumor is 2.5cm, I feel urged to jump to the conclusion that the tumor has been present for some time. Is it possible they just missed this? Has this thing been growing and getting worse for over two years??

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11 years 7 months ago #42807 by kaeley
Thank you for the link, Mark. I've been sticking to professional organization's sites (like the Amer. Cancer Soc) and support forums such as these. I probably just misinterpreted what I had read.

Hi Anita, yes, my father can go with my mother to her appointments. He has a history of not telling me things to "protect" me. I will post the results once my mother has them.

They did some kind of test a few weeks ago using her urine and the labs indicated there was a tumor. I was wondering how they could determine that from urine?

Thank you so much for your help. I do better with knowledge.

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11 years 7 months ago #42798 by DougG
Kelly,

Is there someone who can go to the doctor with your mother and take notes to share with you since you do not live nearby?

Hope your mother's surgery goes well next week.

Anita

Anita
Forum Moderator
Caregiver

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11 years 7 months ago #42779 by upnorth
Replied by upnorth on topic Mother Recently Diagnosed with Bladder Tumor
Kelly.

Here is a link to a very good site that will help you understand some of the process.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0032729/

Cancer is not hereditary, but if they both lived similar life styles, they both have the same risk level.

I do not have to cath as of yet, but many of our other members do, and can help her far better than I can. They will be on soon to help.

Please be careful of what information you find on the Inter-Net. We will try and give you more reliable Web sites to use. The American Cancer Society is one of them.

There are cancer centers in Florida, so if it dose turn out to be cancer you will have good care available to you.

Mark

Age 55
Diagnosed BC 12/20/2011 Ta No Mo 0a Non-Invasive At age 48
"Please don't cry because it is over..... Smile because it happened!" {Dr. Seuss} :)

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11 years 7 months ago #42775 by kaeley
Also, my mother currently has to catheterize herself in order to urinate. This has been going on for about a year now. She started having difficulty urinating about 1.5 - 2 years ago. Her doctors attributed this to nerve damage from a back surgery she had a few years ago.

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11 years 7 months ago #42773 by kaeley
Mark,

Thank you so much for your response and thank you for correcting any misinformation I've obtained. My parents live in central FL (I am in Miami). I want to find out as much information (that is accurate) as possible so we know what to expect and know our options. My mother has always had an irrational fear of cancer, so to actually be faced with a realistic possibility of her having it is... surreal. Her brother died of cancer about 15 years ago.

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