Maureen
In the winter of 1998 I noticed some blood in my urine which I just assumed was menstrual blood. I had been noticing some symptoms of a “bladder thing,”not feeling quite right going to the bathroom, but as a 49 year old woman who had many urinary tract infections in her life, I was not at all concerned. I made an appointment with my general practitioner, who prescribed antibiotics.

At the follow-up there were still traces of blood found so he referred me to a urologist, who took more samples, gave me more antibiotics and had me return in 2 weeks. At that time he took another urine sample, and insisted on a cystoscopy.  I say “insisted” because I was still resistant, thinking it was just another bladder infection and this was all a waste of time and money. But that’s when he found a tumor.

I had never heard of someone getting bladder cancer, so when the doctor said, “You have a tumor and it’s probably malignant,” I was shocked.  In a daze, I went home to search for information on the internet. There was nothing much out there except scientific abstracts on Medline. The more I read the scarier it got; it seemed as if there were no hard answers.

I was lucky, stage Ta, grade 1. I had a 3 cm tumor removed and no further treatment. But twice, I got to learn first-hand that bladder cancer tends to recur and that life-long diligence is necessary. I was a smoker for over 30 years, a hairdresser for 10 and my life-long hobby was making stained glass lamps with lead solder. I could not have had more risk factors if I’d tried! 

Just prior to my learning I had bladder cancer, our family had just lost a sister to inflammatory breast cancer. After my diagnosis was confirmed, my sister Wendy began a frantic search to learn all she could. Her research and networking resulted in a website for survivors “Bladder Cancer WebCafe”. Having her as my own “expert” is a comforting thought.