🔶 Acute Urinary Retention: This
is an emergency! It's when suddenly you are not able to urinate. Most
of the time its because the
bladder or urethra cannot let the urine pass. This can be from trauma to
the bladder (making in able to contract and press the urine out) or
trauma to the urethra (it swells up and clamps shut). A blood clot,
sloughing from a wound in your bladder, or piece of tumor can also block
the way. This can also happen after you have BCG (it's quite rare). I
had an experience with this. Click here to read more.
🔶 Anemia:
a condition that happens when you don't have enough red blood
cells or hemoglobin in your blood. In bladder cancer, that would usually
mean that is happening because of long term bleeding. This will result
in weakness, and
pallor or unhealthy pale appearance. This can be a sign of bladder
cancer.
🔶 Bladder Spasms (medical
term is detrusor contraction) / Overactive Bladder: this is
when
your bladder squeezes or contracts uncontrollably, suddenly without
warning, causing
an urgent need to release urine. This can cause frequent and urgent need
to urinate. The spasm can force urine from the
bladder, causing leakage. These can be so intense and painful, it can
feel like a uterine contraction (if you are female and have experienced
that before), and can last seconds to 10 minutes or more. There are
medications that can help with this. This can be a sign of bladder
cancer.
🔶 Chronic Urinary Retention:
This is when you can't empty your bladder all the way, but you can
usually still get some urine through. It's very uncomfortable, and it's
persistent. This can be a sign of having bladder cancer.
🔶 Continence / Incontinence: Continence is the ability to control the flow of urine from the bladder to the outside
of the body. You
can usually control urination due to muscular structures called
sphincters, which wrap around the base of the bladder and urethra.
Additionally, if the bladder is damaged, then the bladder cannot
contract properly to help expel the urine from the body. Removal of or
damage to the urinary sphincters or the bladder, can result in an
inability to control the flow of urine normally. That is what
incontinence is. It's when you don't have control of urinating, and you
wet yourself.
🔶 Cystitis: cystis
means bladder, and itis means inflammation. So cystitis means
inflammation of the bladder. BCG, UTI's, chemo, surgery and other
bladder cancer treatments can cause this. Severe cystitis can make it so
the bladder won't contract and push urine out any longer, meaning you
can't urinate. If this is ever the case, it's an emergency, and you need
immediate care. Chronic, or long term cystitis might be a sign of bladder cancer.
🔶 Flank Pain / Lower Back Pain:
this is the pain in the lower back and/or side. The pain is most likely
coming from your kidneys. This can be a sign of bladder cancer.
🔶 Gross Hematuria / Microscopic Hematuria:
Heme is blood, and uria is referring to your urine. So hematuria means
blood is in your urine. This is the most common symptom of bladder cancer. When looking at your urine sample, they find red
blood cells in your urine. Gross hematuria means that when anyone looks
at the urine sample, you can see blood. Microscopic hematuria means that
under a microscope you can see blood cells in your urine, but the blood
can't be visualized with a human eye. The color can range from slight pink, to bright red, to brownish (older oxidized blood), to orange.
🔶 Hair Loss / Hair Thinning / Brittle and Dry Hair: Depending
on the chemotherapy, you can loose all your hair. Some people have
reported that BCG can cause hair thinning and brittle or dry hair.
Increase your protein, take collagen everyday, and invest in a good hair
oil to help protect and moisturize your hair.
🔶 Permanent Hearing Loss: this is a potential side effect of chemotherapy.
🔶 Impotent: a
male that is unable to have an erection adequate for sexual
intercourse. Sometimes this can be a side effect of removing the bladder
or prostate.
🔶 Inflammation: a reaction that can cause symptoms such as swelling, soreness, redness, and warmth often as a reaction to illness or injury. BCG, UTI's, chemo, surgery and other
bladder cancer treatments can cause this.
🔶 Kidney Stone / Renal Calculus: a hard mass formed in the kidneys,
typically consisting of calcium compounds that can't be broken down by
the body. Usually kidney stones have to be "passed" meaning they need to
come out through your urinary system... kidney, ureter, bladder, then
urethra. They are usually very painful. Sometimes, people might think
what they passed was a kidney stone, but it might be a piece of a tumor
in your urinary system.
🔶 Nerve Pain / Neuropathy / Neuropathic Pain : disease
or dysfunction of one or more peripheral nerves, typically causing
numbness or weakness. Chemo can cause this permanent dysfunction.
🔶 Overactive Bladder: When your bladder spasms very often, causing
someone to need to urinate all the time. There can also be urine leakage
associated with this as well. There are medications that can help with this. This can be a sign of bladder cancer.
🔶 Urethritis:
your urethra is inflamed (itis means inflammation). If it gets severe
enough, it can clamp shut, thus blocking the flow of urine. If this
happens, it's an emergency. It's called acute urinary retention.
🔶 Urge Incontinence:
when your bladder spasms, and you leak urine because of the urgent need
to urinate. There are medications that can help with this.
🔶 Urinary Frequency and Urgency:
it's exactly what it sounds like. You have an incredibly strong urge to
urinate very often. These symptoms will come after a TURBT surgery
(take out the tumor by going up your urethra - OUCH!), after having a
catheter for treatments or tests, or if you have a urinary tract
infection. This can also be a possible sign of bladder cancer,
especially if after taking antibiotics the pain doesn't go away.
🔶 Urinary Tract Infection / UTI: it's an infection in any part of your urinary system - kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra.
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