Tumor found in dad's bladder

Hi Alan, thank you for your response.

Sadly, my parents don't actually have me as a caregiver as I live in California and they're in northern Virginia. However, my brother and his wife live 15 minutes from my parents and have turned their lives upside down to take them to every single doctor visit (despite having 2 kids and jobs of their own).

I arrived here from CA today and the urologist had called my dad to tell him that it's a T2 (invaded the muscle layer) and that he'd need bladder and prostate removal. Didn't say the grade, and my dad didn't know to ask. We haven't seen the actual pathology report yet. The appointment is set for Thursday at 7:30 am.

In the meantime I've been doing research on treatments, local cancer centers, local bladder cancer specialists, and calling them to see what they need and how quick we could get an appointment. I've found some names, but if there are any recommendations on this forum for physicians, centers, or support networks we'd really appreciate it.

Thank you all,

Hello,

On Friday, a large tumor was found in my father's bladder. The backstory is that 3 weeks ago his physician sent him to the ER and it was found that his kidneys were failing. Scans showed stones, which were initially believed to be kidney stones and later found to be bladder stones. He also has an enlarged prostate and high PSA for 10+ years, for which he hasn't taken a biopsy. There seems to be conflicting research as to whether this means he has prostate cancer or that there would be false positives. Anyway, a urologist said that it was likely not the stones that were blocking the kidneys, but that the enlarged prostate was squeezing the ureter tube and therefore the kidneys couldn't drain. The docs placed nephrostomy tubes in his kidneys to drain them, and his kidney function has been getting better since, in terms of the vitals.

Last Friday he was scheduled to have a urologist remove the stones and do a "retrograde pyelogram button TURP", which means shrinking the size of the prostate. When the urologist went in, he found a large tumor in the bladder which was obstructing the kidneys from draining into the bladder. He removed the stones and took a sample to send to the pathologist. My father is 71 years old, non-smoker, no history of disease though has had some hypertension. His 102 year old father is still alive with no diseases.

We get the pathologist report on Wednesday. Naturally we're tense. In the meantime, I was wondering if anyone had strong recommendations on bladder cancer specialists in the northern Virginia area? My parents live in Chantilly VA, zip code 20152 which is near Dulles Airport.

I've looked up the major cancer centers in the area, was just wondering if there were specific specialists who are highly regarded in the area that may be worth seeing, pending the outcome of the pathology report.

Thank you all for your kind support.