[mrehak]

My active, fit, and healthy 69-year-old mother-in-law has suffered with Interstitial Cystitis for 23 years. She's had severe bladder contractions (which she compares with childbirth pains) and frequent urination all her adult life. She's been receiving regular bladder distillation treatments since her diagnosis and taken oral meds which has gained her up to 2 hours uninterrupted sleep in a night. I explain this because her IC is a pre-existing condition which constitutes annual cyscoscopies that only recently revealed polyps, requiring removal. One larger polyp was sent out for biopsy and tested positive for cancer and contained muscle tissue. We are currently awaiting results for the 2nd bladder wall scraping to determine if the cancer is invasive or not. Regardless, we were told that the "soaking" cancer treatment administered into the bladder can actually CAUSE IC symptoms, therefore, her urologist does not know how to proceed with her. -- not only is bladder cancer less common in women than in men, but it is also more rare to treat a patient for both conditions at the same time. Chemo may not be effective on her type of cancer. Bladder removal seems to be the best option depending on the results of the latest biopsy, but what will her quality of life be then? Does anyone have any experience with this? -Melissa