Hi Sharonna. 

This might be a silly question, but have you actually asked for pain relief with each treatment?  On the MacMillan page for BCG it does list pain as a side effect, but also says that you can take painkillers.

Perhaps your GP or the hospital can give you a strong painkiller, such as a strong co-codamol, that you can take either before or soon after the treatment. I wouldn't take anything without discussing it with your GP and your treatment team. 

Hi, i was just told to take paracetamol by my nurse administering the bcg . I have terrible pain afterwards but he just said every patient says the same thing . 

Hmm. What a plonker! If every patient says the same thing then clearly they ALL need better pain relief. Where do they get these idiots from?  Seriously?? What a ******! :|

Well, that's my rant over. Paracetamol is ok, but it's clearly not adequate. Discuss with your GP whether or not you can add 400 mg Ibuprofen to the mix.  Or possibly the GP can prescribe something stronger. I had a panendoscopy on my throat last week, which left me in a lot of pain for a few days afterwards. My doctor prescribed Zapain, which is a mixture of paracetamol wiith 50 mg codeine. It's only available on prescription.  I could have taken up to 8 per day, but only needed 3 a day to make the pain go away completely for a whole 24 hours.  I only needed them for a couple of days and I've now come off them. 

Thank you , i will make an appointment to see my gp hopefully before  my next treatment. I will take anything to ease the pain right now.  

Thank you , i will make an appointment to see my gp hopefully before  my next treatment. I will take anything to ease the pain right now.  

Are you in pain right NOW? 

I have a burning pain in my bladder all the time. Its worse going to the toilet. I get very sore after a day at work on my feet walking around . Cant wait to get the next 3 weeks of treatment over with. So i can start to recover.

I'm not a doctor, but I have had to deal with chronic pain from time to time.

Unless you've been told you can't use Ibuprofen, it's worth knowing that for an adult it is safe to take Ibuprofen and Paracetamol at the same time. This gives you a double hit of painkiller.  You can take the full dose of both, and then repeat the paracetamol every 4 hours and the ibuprofen every 6 hours. Just be sure not to exceed the doses and daily limits on the packets.  

There's more about taking them together on this page from the NHS website.

Note that this information applies to adults only. The situation for children is different.

Thank you for posting this . I will definitely give it a go. 

Hi Sharonna

Try to see your own GP as soon as you can. Maybe you can get some stronger painkillers. You really shouldn't be suffering like this. I think it's appalling. 

I saw my gp after work. She prescribed codeine and said take ibuprofen and laxative all at the same time. I hate the effect of codeine making me feel spaced out and does little to help with the pain . Got my bcg again tomorrow and dreading it . 

This sounds very encouraging.  You should take the minimum amount of codeine to give you the pain relief you need and minimise the side effects. You can even break a tablet in half if necessary, although you might need to buy a tablet cutter from any chemist. 

Let's hope that with a bit of tablet juggling, your next BCG treatment will be more comfortable. 

Good luck. 

Just seen this post. I was also diagnosed with bladder cancer in Jan 2017. .I have been having BCG treatment since then. I was told do NOT take ibuprofen it is anti inflammatory and BCG works by causing inflammation. You are not even allowed to have a flu vaccination for the same reason. The system I have come up with is very little fluid intake before the treatment then after about 1 1/2  to  1 3/4 hrs into the treatment start drinking lots of water and I mean 2 to 3 glasses. This will then dilute the BCG in your bladder so when you let it out after 2hrs it won't irritate the urether pipe as much. This is what I have been doing for close on 3 years and it works for me. Also keep drinking lots of water to flush it out 

Thank you for messaging. Im am off treatment now since August 2019 . Go for camera in feb 2020. 

Hope you are well . X

Yes my doctor just gave me paracetamol.  Ridiculous! I soon got some co codamol 30 and took them with ibuprofen before and after! Insist