Am I overthinking

Hi Llama and a welcome to this friendly and supportive group. The way you are feeling is normal and many of us will understand. The early days of uncertainty can play on your mind, but bladder cancer can be treated successfully. A TURBT procedure is usually performed in day surgery but prepare for an overnight just in case. Offending cells will be scraped away and sent for analysis. The chemo wash is usually with a drug called Mitomycin. This is to mop up any rogue cells floating around. It takes a couple of week s for results. The CT scan adds to the picture and rules anything else out. Once you have an accurate diagnosis and a treatment plan in place, things tend to get slightly easier as you have something positive to focus on. You would usually need at least a week off work but no heavy or strenuous work for longer. Dealing with other people can be difficult and people deal with it in different ways. I told everyone who would listen what I was going through. Lots of experiences here so feel free to ask anything or just come for a talk. Best wishes.

Hi, I was also in my 50s when diagnosed, although I thought it was fairly straightforward as my brother had been through it a few years before. For me, work was a good refuge to keep my mind off things - a place of normality. I must admit the general anaesthetic knocked me back for 10 days or so, as well as painful and frequent urination. I was glad to rest at home. You should allow possibly 2 weeks off work. 
I know that feeling of mind in a whirl and especially understandable in your case. Try to find some absorbing activities as a distraction. Writing down your thoughts can help too, and at night I listen to speech podcasts if I can’t sleep. 
We are all familiar with the anxiety of waiting for results - it will be a few weeks after the TURBT that you will know better the next steps. Bladder cancer is very treatable, so hopefully all will go well for you. 

Hello Llama, sorry to hear about your diagnosis.your feelings are exactly the same as everyone who has been on this journey. Things will get better and as you will discover on this forum cancer can be treated successfully. I was diagnosed in 2018 and following a course of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and chemo radiation followed later by a course of BCG instillations I have been cancer free for over 15 months. I was retired back in 2018 but carried on playing golf 5 days a week and enjoying life with family and grandchildren. We holiday 3/4 times a year and try and live a normal life. When your treatment plan is revealed you can then look forward to beating this disease. Good luck and keep us all in the loop regarding your treatment. 

Hi Llama,Welcome to the group though I’m sorry you find yourself here.I think most of us felt this way at the start but it does get easier.I hope you find this group helpful and supportive.Best wishes Jane 

Hi Llama,

I think you may be overhinking  but that's probably because I have been determined not to let my illness dominate my life. I still haven't cried about having cancer, for example.

I had my TURBT in 2022 but hadn't been told anything about what they found prior to that (I had a CT scan plus a cystoscopy - camera into the bladder first) so didn't think much about it and I didn't see a specialist at that point. All hospitals seem to do things differently but we all get to the same result so no need to worry if you find  someone else had things done in a different order.

I just carried on as normal, especially as I had no symptoms after the TURBT, not even on urination. Then they called me in for a meeting with the Urologist who told me what type of bladder cancer I had and what treatment path I'd be on. That's the first time anyone mentioned cancer. It was a shock but there was nothing for it but to get on with the treatment and support my husband and daughter, so I did. 1 was aged 69. Click on my name to see what I had done.

I found the TURBT very straightforward and recovered quickly, probably because I didn't think about bladder cancer (from which my mother died in 1974 after neglecting it until too late). I had stopped smoking after that and thought I couldn't have it.

I retired long ago so no clients and colleagues involved but I have a number of regular activities and meet others regularly. I told everyone the diagnosis but not much else and certainly little detail. Other people have problems of their own. That's why this forum is so helpful, we know what's involved and don't take things personally. Plus we all react differently, and it helps us to see that. 

Mum had no treatment beside something very like a TURBT, though it wasn't named to us in those days. But I knew when I was diagnosed that I should grab everything they offered Mum, would have killed to have the chances I have had.

This is to show that even if you know what cancer can do you can choose how you react to it. 

I am now under 6 monthly review, and came home an hour ago from my latest CT scan in preparation for my next oncologist meeting in April. I feel fine and will worry about any what-ifs after I see her.

I hope you find this useful. Life is hard enough without spending too long worrying about cancer. And it doesn't cure anything either.

All the best,

Latestart

It's natural to over think things for sure. 

I had a 1cm tumour removed in July 24 and had had to have mitomycin into my bladder which didn't stop some small recurrences and just finished epirubicin instead. 

Bladder cancer is one of the most treatable cancers especially if caught nice and early. It isn't the sentence of doom that people often think when they hear that word. 

Lots of people have had way worse than myself or you and are still here to tell the tale many many years later. 

Once you get your TURBT out the way and get the histology at least then you will know the grading and learn to deal with the worry of things. It does get easier once you have a plan in place for treatment. 

Thank you all for you replies. I am hoping that once the results from the turbt come back, I will feel different. Always been an overthinker and doesn’t help I’ve lost my sibling to a cancer. Hard, as we were told that there was no malignancy and yet they died 6 weeks later. I know that was a very different case, and seems bladder cancer does seem very treatable, I will try and think positive Wishing everyone all the best with their treatments and thank you all again for your support x 

My dad died of bowel cancer so I know the feeling especially with a heridtary disease that runs in my family but I don't worry about the what it's, if it happens it happens until then I won't worry about it. 

Again we have all been where you are now and yes sometimes we have wobbles or anxiety over things but it's kind of pointless worrying too much over something you have little control over, yes there are some things you can do to minimize the chance of it coming back, but tbh it's mostly out of our hands. 

I always read some of the stories on here of what people have had to go through and are still with us, some have gone through way way worse and gone on to be clear. 

It will always be in your mind and popping up from time to time certainly and the anxiety and worry can also cause other problems, so just try and take it a day at a time and deal with things as they happen. 

Come on here any time you need to vent or ask stuff someone will usually soon reply to you. It is scary there is no denying that but not as scary as we often believe things to be.