I will relate how the BCG went for me....remember that everyone is a bit different!
I would go into the office (usually my appointments were late morning because I HATE to get caught in rush hour
traffic). The entire thing would take abot 20 minutes. They would check a urine sample to be sure that I didn't have a UTI....if you do, they postpone the BCG until that clears up. BCG is administered via a catheter just like in a cystoscopy. Then you go home. My drive home (and I was always by myself) took about half an hour. I usually wore a maxi-pad just in case I leaked.
I would then lie down since it is easier NOT to pee if I am lying down. I would try my best to "hold" until 2 hours had passed. The nurse at the uro's office told me to do my best, but if I couldn't make it for 2 hours that was OK. At the end of 2 hours or as close as I could get I would pee and start drinking water. Before flushing I would pour a cup of liquid chlorine bleach in the toilet and let it sit 20 minutes per the instructions I received with the BCG before flushing. Sometimes I was back at the toilet before the 20 min had passed!!
During the next few hours I had lots of urgency, burning, cramps, and sometimes blood clots passing. By about 5 or 6 hours after administration I was starting to feel more "normal." Was really pretty normal by the next day. I did start to have fatigue a day or so after which also went away.
Did have a couple of occasions where the burning and urgency did NOT go away and my uro diagnosed this as "BCG-cystitis" or irritation of the bladder lining caused by the BCG. We then waited a couple of weeks before continuing with the series.
The side effects do increase as the number of treatments progresses. This is because the body is becoming sensitized to the BCG, which is what you want to happen. We reduced the dose and by the time I finished the two years' maintenance I was down to 1/3 the original dose.
The really important thing? IT WORKED
Sara Anne