My friend has been diagnosed with bladder cancer from a recent CT scan and is understandably burying his head due to the bombshell.  I am doing all that I can to help but know nothing more than what I have read on google which is often the wrong place to search.

I must admit the information is quite consistent but any more help is much appreciated.

my friend is 58 and has been very healthy all is life other than gout over the past few years.  Around 8 weeks ago he started to have a sore back which was horrendous at times but he put it down to heavy work,his mattress, his posture etc.  He then noticed blood in his pee which shook him to the core.  He went to the doctor who thought urine infection, prescribed antibiotics but nothing changed.  He went back and she said it may be kidney stones (from memory) and they would need him to go for a scan.  She told him to take his diclofenac that he takes for his gout to manage the back/groin pain.

we went into lockdown and his pain continued to level 10/10 and I told him to go to A&E which he did.  They did a scan for stones and found nothing! They ran blood and urine tests but found nothing wrong - they said they would be in touch regarding the scan in due course.  The prescribed cocodamol for the pain which did very little either.  He managed a few more days then headed back to A&E where they said they found no stones and would need to send him for a full ct scan.

it was then that they found bladder cancer with a 2x4x5 cm exophytic tumour..... to add to this they suspect lymphoma and found a small lesion on his L3 vertebrae.  He had 6/8 people around his bed but couldn't think of any questions to ask probably due to the shock.  We have since gathered some questions but the consultant seems to be unavailable to call him back since last Thursday which is stressing him.  He has called and left loads of messages with his secretary and voicemail all to no avail!  We are now speculating which is never the wisest thing to do.

He was to have a cystoscope on the 14th of May but they cancelled that and said they would do a full bone scan on the 13th May and the cystoscope on the 29th.  He fears he will not be able to speak to the consultant until the 29th.

Is there anything we can do or is it just a case of following the system?

Is there any benefit to going private other than a comfier bed?

is it curable?

It looks like he has had the bladder cancer with no signs for a long time and only the back pain has alerted him to it other than the recent blood.  We were optimistic when reading about the bladder cancer but much less so now that it has spread to his spine albeit a small lesion.

any suggestions on how to deal with this would be much appreciated.

any tips on getting ahead of it much appreciated.

Any views on things like "Chris beats cancer" much appreciated.

ken