Just Received the basic news

Oh yes, in answer to your question. I do have someone to be with me. My dear sweet husband will be there with me all the way. We have been married 42 years and he is the dearest person alive. My sister is in El Paso, but we are in constant telephone/text contact.

We will leave in the morning (Thursday) about 8 am. and will be on the road most of the day. I think it takes about 4-5 hours to drive. It's about 275-300 miles. So, a nice dinner Thursday night and on to the road to recovery.

Henri

Thank you all for your quick reply. I feel so much better knowing all of you are here to answer questions and dispel some of my fears.

I have since talked to Dr. Shah and his scheduling assistant also a couple of times. Dr. Shah is scheduling a CT scan with contrast and will do the Cystocopy and the TURB (as I have learned - remove the tumor). Dr. Shah said he had studied my medical records, but needed the contrast CT scan before the surgery. They will do that Friday morning and the surgery will be scheduled about 3:00 Friday afternoon. Downside - no food or drink all day Friday. But I will be in tests and probably will be so nervous, I won't even miss it.

I understand when I get to M D Anderson, I will have a whole team of people that will walk me through the process. I've never seen such medical efficiency as I am seeing with M D Anderson. Wow. I was thinking that it would be on down the line before they did anything after I met with the doctor on Friday and another doctor (who will handle after care treatment, I now understand) on Monday. The doctor has called me twice ... Wow. Dr. Shah seems really nice. I think he maybe didn't realize I had no idea what he was talking about .. he probably through the urologist here had told me "something", but he didn't tell me diddly squat. I am feeling more at ease, especially after all your responses.

Thank you all so much. I guess Friday is the day to get it all started. I'll be reporting back as soon as I can.

Big Texas Sized Hugs to all of you!!

Henri

The surgery is TURB (or sometimes TURBt), "Transurethral Resection Bladder tumor." It is indeed removal of as much of the tumor as they can (hopefully all of it). The material removed will be sent for biopsy for further analysis as to stage (e.g., noninvasive; invasive, and if so, how many layers of the bladder are involved) and grade (the type of cells, how aggressive they are). I believe that for high grade, invasive tumors bladder removal may in fact be the recommendation. Sometimes chemo is done prior to bladder removal. But don't let's get ahead of things here, as they don't yet have the full picture. There are people on this board who have a lot more experience than I do with invasive cancer, chemo, bladder removal, etc. Wishing you the best of luck!

Ann

P.S. Do you have someone who's going to be with you? It always helps to have someone else there, as you are sometimes in such a state of shock that it's hard to absorb what the doctor is saying. It's good to have a notebook, where you can write down questions ahead of time and write things down when you have your appointments

Henri - yes no doubt they are referring to a Transurethral Resection of a Bladder Tumor (TURBT) which is not exactly scraping but electrode ablation of the tumor. Regardless - that is indeed the way tumors are removed. The CT scan beforehand is just to get a clearer picture of size and location before they go in through the urethra. You will be fully anesthesized. You will also likely get chemotherapy in the bladder itself ("intravesical") after the procedure to kill any cancer cells floating around.

Needless to say, good luck to you - we have all been through one or more TURBT, not the most pleasant thing in the world but it does NOT involve incisional surgery - it uses an existing "orifice" albeit a small one.

As I stated earlier, my first appointment is scheduled for 6:45 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 16. I just received a call from Dr. Shah. He is scheduling a CT Scan with contrast and wants to do the Cystocopy and "scraping inside" on Friday afternoon after I meet with him and have the CT Scan. I'm not sure if this means that he is removing the tumor? I guess I was too shook up talking to him to soak it all in, but when I talked to his scheduler earlier and she mentioned a TURC or TURK (is that right) and I asked what it was, she was it was to remove the tumor. I am all for going forward as soon as possible.

Dr. Shah did say when they got all the results back, he would have a plan worked out, but his initial thinking was chemo for 1-1/2 months or so and then he would know if it would be necessary to remove the bladder.

This all sounds pretty scary to me..Can anyone enlighten me on what I am "talking" about. I know when I get to M D Anderson on Friday, I will get more answers. But I'm really scared right now.

Thanks, y'all.