What's Wrong With This Picture?

A) This woman's bustier is too tight

B) This woman has a bad dye job on her hair

C) This woman forgot to put on her nail polish

D) This woman is SMOKING

A) This woman's shirt is too short

B) This woman needs to go on a diet

C) This woman's upper arms aren't very toned

D) This woman is pregnant and SMOKING

A) Grandma has dirty fingernails

B) Grandma needs an eyelid lift

C) Grandma is not sharing

D) Grandma is SMOKING

A) Penises do not have arms or eyes

B) Scrotums do not have legs

C) Scrotum legs do not wear boots

D) The penis is SMOKING

The correct answer in each case is of course, D. Smoking.

Smoking has been positively linked to bladder cancer. Not possibly, definitely.

And smokers who continue to smoke after a diagnosis of bladder cancer have a very large risk of developing metastatic disease within 2 years. Once bladder cancer has become metastatic life expectancy is usually less than 3 years.

Many bladder cancers start as superficial lesions that can be treated if caught early. Unfortunately, bladder cancer isn't always very obvious so if your doctor tells you that you have blood in your urine even if you can't see it, follow your doctor's recomendations to have it checked out.

Common risk factors for bladder cancer are age (over 40), being male and smoking.

If bladder cancer is caught early before it becomes invasive, treatment is much simpler. If it is invasive, then the discussions change dramatically to options such as removal of the bladder and/or radiation and chemotherapy.

People often fear quitting smoking for fear of gaining weight.

You can lose weight. It is much harder to lose cancer.

Other people fear becoming irritable if they stop smoking. There are lots of good ways to help cope with this, though.

There is hope and help if you want to quit.

And each time you try to quit, one day you really will.

The saddest part of Christmas this year was going to the funeral of one of my favorite patients who died of bladder cancer. She never stopped smoking.

Please try. For everyone who loves you but most of all for yourself.

We can help. Talk to us.

Bladder cancer

Bladder cancer is a scary disease. It is more common in men, and more common in people over the age of 40. Cigarette smoking is a known risk for developing bladder cancer. At present, there is no recommended routine screening test for bladder cancer but certain symptoms or problems suggest the need to be checked. These are:

Blood in the urine

Pain during urination

Urinary frequency

If you have any of these symptoms, your doctor will check your urine and look for other causes besides cancer. If your doctor suspects bladder cancer, you will likely have a CAT scan or other test to examine your kidneys and you will also need to have a cystoscopy. A cystoscopy is a test where your doctor will look inside your bladder with a special camera that can examine the lining of the bladder. If anything abnormal is found, biopsies are taken to make a diagnosis.

Probably the best advice we can give you at this time to prevent developing bladder cancer is not to start smoking, or if you do smoke, STOP. It is difficult to stop smoking, in fact, the nicotine in cigarettes is one of the most addicting substances known. Your doctor can help you stop smoking with a variety of methods if you want to stop. At our office Dr. Roesel will be happy to talk to you about quitting smoking. Just ask. We are happy to help.