[Viva] Bladder Cancer - what to look for

[Denise Wozniak]

Dear Friends:

About two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a low grade bladder cancer. I
have an operation on October 13 to remove it and the urologist says he
would be shocked if it had spread.  I'm letting you know this so that you
will know what to look for and what follow-up to take to catch it early:

Around 3 months ago I had a urine test as part of my regular blood work. I
had not had bloodwork for at least 8 months due to worries about being
around any Covid.

There were a few differences from the usual results:  Here is what was
different:

Protein ATrace
Leukocytes APositive

My cd4 was 1080 and my ratio was 45%, both really good considering I have
had HIV since 1989.

A month later I started to notice a lot of blood in my urine and no pain,
my skin was incredibly itchy (related?). I also had blood in urine in 2017
and it was due to a UTI or a kidney stone. At that time I had pain too.
This time the bleeding lasted over a week.  During that time my GP sent me
for another urine test:

Protein A1
Hemoglobin A>=10
Leukocytes A75

The Leukocytes had really changed.

A cytology was ordered from another urine test and sent to the BC Cancer
Agency - Negative for Cancer.

At that point I almost cancelled a Urologist appointment but I thought I
would tell him what had happened so far. He said he wanted to do a
cystoscopy (camera up into my bladder) because sometimes a cytology doesn't
catch it. He also changed by GP's ultrasound appointment to a CT scan. The
cystoscopy found the cancer. Lesson learned:  do not cancel a urologist
appointment.  I told him I'd had worse news in the past (haven't we all!)
and so this was something I would just wait to see what happens.

The urologist set up an appointment for me to have an operation to get the
tumour removed on October 13. Tumours are just a collection of cancer cells
and often we think of tumours as something much more sinister but they can
be small. I will have the results about 10 days after the operation and
will know if the cancer cells are just on the surface or have gone deeper
into the wall of the bladder.

I'm letting you know all of this because I learned that I shouldn't
take blood in the urine too lightly and don't settle for Cytology results.

I don't need sympathy, I just want to bring about awareness and I will keep
you informed as to next steps because it's always good to have knowledge.

Virtual hugs to all of you,

Denise Wozniak
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