Hi guys -- I'm new here and I'm actually inquiring on behalf of my mom.
She's turning 61 years old this year and for the past 2 years she's had on and off blood in her urine. It first started happening in January 2015--right after she came back from a vacation in Europe. Seeing the blood in her urine really spooked her, enough that she went to the ER right away. Well the ER doctor gave her the diagnosis of "jetlagged and tired." Another doctor she saw said it was probably a UTI and gave her some meds for that sent her on her merry way.
After taking the UTI meds, the blood in her urine disappeared, but then months later came back. During this time she also said that she had to pee like 20 times a night. Over the past year and a half, the bleeding has gone and come back about 6 times already. For many of those times, she never went back to the doctor because she assumed it was happening because she was "tired."
In a more recent episode, she went back to the doctor and this time they checked out her kidneys but everything looked fine there. They also said that it wasn't a UTI. So obviously, now the big one we're all scared of is bladder cancer. She's going to a urologist on Monday to get the checked out. Also worth noting, neither the ER doctor nor her primary care physician had referred her to a urologist before this point.
Long story short -- I'm pretty pissed that we may have wasted/lost 2 years of time because of some bad calls that some doctors made. But I'm really worried now is that if it is bladder cancer, how much would 2 years have cost her? How quickly does this cancer spread? Maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves here, but you can understand the freak out.
Also -- not sure if this is related or not, but she also has crazy spells of vertigo that also no one has been able to diagnose. We assumed it was hypertension until her blood pressure was under control but the dizziness continued. Right now we're assuming this and her blood urine are not related, but who nows.
Any insights/personal experiences/stories would be super appreciated. I'm glad she's finally going to get some care on Monday but it's going to be a tough weekend!
