Bladder Cancer and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Hello and welcome to the group. Sorry to hear about the treatment effects you are having. I did not have BCG, but have seen this crop up several times on here. I am sure someone will be along with experience and advice. best wishes.

Hi Carlton, I haven't experienced anything like that. But coincidentally, my consultant recently mentioned in passing  that "reactive arthritis" is a rare side-effect of BCG (i'm on a BCG course currently). . He said it is quite rare, but can happen up to 6 months after. It think it's sometimes also called "psuedo arthritis" because while it hurts like hell and is AR, the other traditional indicators of RA are not present (whatever those might be..), which apparently confuses the heck out of A&E doctors. And it's often so painful that that's where patients end up, at A&E, without realising the connection to BCG. Anyway, I'm not a doctor, but just wanted to share that info. Hopefully not sending you down a wrong alley ;-) Would be best to speak to your consultant/urologist..
bladdercancer.net/.../bcg-reactive-arthritis

Sunrise 75 

Thank you for your most informative reply, quite interesting 

My Rheumatologist says there`s no link between the two despite the fact that i had only just finished treatment 5 when it appeared , he wont act until the Oncologist carries out my next cystoscopy - good news though after discussions with the Virology team via Macmillan today we are making progress