Hello Whosthatgirl and welcome to Cancer Chat, 

I can understand why you were shocked by this response. Three months is a long time to have to wait and being told there is a risk it might rupture and spread to the bladder in the meantime is not very reassuring. I would perhaps try to seek a second opinion from another consultant. Talk about your concerns about the waiting times and whether there is anything that can be done to be seen earlier given the risks of waiting which you were told could affect your dad's mortality.  You can find out more about getting a second opinion on this page. 

I hope you manage to talk to a specialist about this and that they are able to help reduce the waiting times. It is worth also bringing up the fact that your dad would be willing to take any cancellation. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Thank you for your responses, it has been stressful so far; my dad got a referral to urology back in October last year due to excessive hematuria that suddenly came on and some unusual back pain (he has always had kidney stones but he knew this felt very different).

He was told following a scan in December that he had a twist in his ureter and they'd found a mass that was of concern but needed to insert a stent and do an exploratory exam to see if it was a blockage or something more sinister.

He had the stent and biopsies taken on 2nd Feb and immediately following the op the consultant saw him before he was discharged, confirming 'it is a mass, we've taken biopsies and will get back to you' and he was pretty much just left beside himself not knowing what that meant.

He got a stent infection two weeks later (19th Feb) and was rushed in as his temperature was so low they suspected sepsis; another consultant saw him and initially said 'well there's clearly nothing wrong with you' only to find out he had a severe infection that needed IV antibiotics!

Before he left the hospital that time, his urology consultant came to see him and told him that it was more than likely cancer, they're usually malignant in that location. He said he wanted my dad to have a chest scan because he was concerned that it may be a secondary cancer that has originated from his lung so he would book him an appointment and then once those results along with biopsies are back he would discuss with him the findings. He had his MRI scan of his lungs and then was discharged. 

He had to wait 4 weeks for the appointment, not knowing in all of that time what was actually wrong with him, which is where they gave him the news that he had yet another 3 month wait which could be the difference between survival or not. Fortunately his lungs are clear.

We have contacted PALs, who instantly liaised with the head of Urology as she called us back within a few hours. She agreed that he really cannot wait the 3 months and he is now being treated as an emergency case; she promised to call with dates next week so we are hopeful he may pull through this.

Sorry for the long reply, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the whole situation; cancer is not something we have had a lot of experience with but I was shocked at how my dad has been treated thus far - it's been over 6 months since he called his GP and he hasn't had any treatment as of yet.

The whole situation sounds so stressful and frustrating for you I'm not surprised you're overwhelmed. Being told different things by  different Drs and then waiting ages for more tests / to find out exactly what's what is so hard to deal with. I'm going to talk to my new consultant about my experiences of this over the last 4 Months on Monday!   Glad you've had contact with PALS and I've got my fingers crossed for you that next week will result in treatment sooner for your Dad. X