smart12237
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Illinois
My husband was 45 years old last July when he visited our primary care physician complaining of painful urination and blood in the urine. After doses of antibiotics that did not work, the doctor referred him to a urologist, telling him it could possibly be kidney stones or bladder cancer. He visitied the urologist, who did several tests, all negative, and said he should have a cystscopy but did not schedule one. Fast forward to November and my husband cannot urinate at all one morning. Went to the emergency room and they catheterized him. The bag was full of dark red blood. He was admitted and finally the next day the cystcsopy was done. The urologist "stumbled upon" some growths and took a biopsy: Bladder cancer. He couldn't stop saying how surprised he was, that this was an "old man's disease". It was confined to the wall of the bladder but the lab report states Grade 3-4 (which is agressive and tends to come back once it is gone). The standard treatment for Stage 1 is BCG treatments through a catheter, but the doctor did not hook him up with an oncologist for treatment until January. My husband met the oncologist exactly ONCE. He never examined him, was never even there for one treatment. During this 6 week treatment program, he was constantly bleeding while urinating, had clots, painful urination etc., all of which the urologist assured him was normal. Once this treatment was over, he was supposed to have another cystcsopy to see the progress, but this was not done until March. Nothing in between, no CT scan, no MRI, NOTHING except another trip to the emergency room, more catheters, constant antibiotics and pain pills. During his visits to the urologist (never saw the oncologist), he would take a urine test, the doc would say "I don't like the way that looks" and that was it. During the March cystcopy, another biopsy was performed: now it had spread to the muscle (Stage 2). The doc told him he had to have the bladder removed, and to go to Mayo Clinic. Mayo wanted a CT scan, so my husband had it done here in Illinois and sent it over on CD, along with the radiologist's report stating that everything was normal other than the bladder. On April 30, we saw the urologist at Mayo and to make a long story short, he tells us, no bladder removal was to be done because it was now in the lymph nodes, according to the CT scan we had done at home. He showed us on the computer and said it was very obvious. Why did the doctor or radiologist at home not catch this? I don't think the urologist at home even looked at it, and the radiologist is obviously an idiot. We had to wait over a month and travel out of state just to have a CT scan read correctly. He (the Mayo doc) did a surgical procedure to cauterize the bleeding (why didn't the other urologist ever do this?) and then sent us on our way. My husband had to start from scratch trying to find a new oncologist and urologist since the other 2 he was using just completely screwed things up. With chemo, he has maybe a year to a year and a half. I have a thousand questions and regrets. This should not have happened. An otherwise healthy 46 year old man is nowterminally ill because no doctor took this seriously enough. Do we have a case?What is the name of your state?
My husband was 45 years old last July when he visited our primary care physician complaining of painful urination and blood in the urine. After doses of antibiotics that did not work, the doctor referred him to a urologist, telling him it could possibly be kidney stones or bladder cancer. He visitied the urologist, who did several tests, all negative, and said he should have a cystscopy but did not schedule one. Fast forward to November and my husband cannot urinate at all one morning. Went to the emergency room and they catheterized him. The bag was full of dark red blood. He was admitted and finally the next day the cystcsopy was done. The urologist "stumbled upon" some growths and took a biopsy: Bladder cancer. He couldn't stop saying how surprised he was, that this was an "old man's disease". It was confined to the wall of the bladder but the lab report states Grade 3-4 (which is agressive and tends to come back once it is gone). The standard treatment for Stage 1 is BCG treatments through a catheter, but the doctor did not hook him up with an oncologist for treatment until January. My husband met the oncologist exactly ONCE. He never examined him, was never even there for one treatment. During this 6 week treatment program, he was constantly bleeding while urinating, had clots, painful urination etc., all of which the urologist assured him was normal. Once this treatment was over, he was supposed to have another cystcsopy to see the progress, but this was not done until March. Nothing in between, no CT scan, no MRI, NOTHING except another trip to the emergency room, more catheters, constant antibiotics and pain pills. During his visits to the urologist (never saw the oncologist), he would take a urine test, the doc would say "I don't like the way that looks" and that was it. During the March cystcopy, another biopsy was performed: now it had spread to the muscle (Stage 2). The doc told him he had to have the bladder removed, and to go to Mayo Clinic. Mayo wanted a CT scan, so my husband had it done here in Illinois and sent it over on CD, along with the radiologist's report stating that everything was normal other than the bladder. On April 30, we saw the urologist at Mayo and to make a long story short, he tells us, no bladder removal was to be done because it was now in the lymph nodes, according to the CT scan we had done at home. He showed us on the computer and said it was very obvious. Why did the doctor or radiologist at home not catch this? I don't think the urologist at home even looked at it, and the radiologist is obviously an idiot. We had to wait over a month and travel out of state just to have a CT scan read correctly. He (the Mayo doc) did a surgical procedure to cauterize the bleeding (why didn't the other urologist ever do this?) and then sent us on our way. My husband had to start from scratch trying to find a new oncologist and urologist since the other 2 he was using just completely screwed things up. With chemo, he has maybe a year to a year and a half. I have a thousand questions and regrets. This should not have happened. An otherwise healthy 46 year old man is nowterminally ill because no doctor took this seriously enough. Do we have a case?What is the name of your state?
