Bladder Cancer And Back Pain

Gallbladder Problems And Back Pain

Is there an established link between gallbladder problems and back pain? Scroll down to find out if an inflamed gallbladder could cause back pain.

Is there an established link between gallbladder problems and back pain? Scroll down to find out if an inflamed gallbladder could cause back pain.

The gallbladder is a small pear-shaped sac that is located below the liver. It stores and regulates the flow of bile. Bile is a digestive juice produced by the liver. Cholecystokinin is a peptide hormone that facilitates the contraction of the gallbladder. CCK is secreted whenever we ingest food items that are rich in fats or lipids. Once CCK is secreted, the gallbladder contracts. This is followed by release of bile into the cystic duct. The cystic duct and the hepatic duct together make up the common bile duct. Bile is released from the common bile duct into the small intestine. The secretion of bile is extremely essential for emulsifying fats. Emulsification of fats plays an important role in the digestion and absorption of fats. If the gallbladder becomes inflamed or is unable to release bile at the right time, one may suffer from a wide range of distressing symptoms. Though abdominal pain and discomfort are the characteristic signs of a gallbladder disease, pain may sometimes be felt around the back as well.

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What Is A Radical Cystectomy

A urologist may suggest removal of the bladder or a radical cystectomy if a bladder tumor invades the muscle wall or if CIS or a T1 tumor still persists after BCG therapy. Before any radical surgery is performed, a series of CT scans or an MRI will be ordered to exclude the possibility of metastatic or distant disease in other parts of the body. If the patient has metastatic disease, surgery to remove the bladder is not recommended and patients will be referred to a medical oncologist to discuss chemotherapy. The two types of surgery performed for muscle-invasive bladder cancer are partial or complete radical cystectomy.

Other Complementary Pain Management Techniques

There are a range of other complementary and alternative pain management techniques that may be worth exploring. These include:

• acupuncture
• hypnosis
• biofeedback

Biofeedback is a technique that uses machines to help you learn about and control some of your involuntary body functions. Led by a licensed technician, biofeedback may help you relax and cope with pain in your body.

Many of these integrative methods havent been tested in scientific studies on people with bladder cancer. But theyre regarded as ways to improve your quality of life when you have a disease.

Talk to your healthcare team to determine which ones might be best for your situation.

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Other Symptoms Of Bladder Cancer

Other symptoms of bladder cancer can include:

• passing urine very often
• passing urine very suddenly
• pain or a burning sensation when passing urine
• weight loss
• pain in your back, lower tummy or bones
• feeling tired and unwell

These symptoms are much more likely to be caused by other conditions rather than cancer. For example a urine infection, particularly if you do not have blood in your urine. For men, the symptoms could be caused by an enlarged prostate gland.

But do tell your doctor straight away if you have these symptoms. If you have an infection, it can usually be cleared up very quickly with antibiotics. And it is always best to check for cancer as early as possible so that it can be diagnosed while it is easier to treat.

You should see your GP if you have any of these symtpoms. But remember, they can all be caused by other medical conditions. Most people with these symptoms dont have bladder cancer.

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence , June 2015

• BMJ Best Practice. Bladder CancerD Lamm and othersBMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 2018

• Bladder Cancer: diagnosis and management of bladder cancer. National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence , 2015

• EAU Guidelines on Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer M Babjuk and others

Other Suggested Treatment Options

Sometimes, you may not find the right diagnosis or treatment simply by visiting your doctor. Thats because doctors dont often address the complete picture of why youre experiencing pain.

More often than not, our pain is caused by imbalances in any or all of these three sources: mind, body and diet.

Here at the Healthy Back Institute, we teach a comprehensive method that called the Complete Healing Formula that addresses each one of these sources.

Weve found that this is the best way to address chronic pain, whether its in your lower back or elsewhere.

I provide an overview of these healing strategies in my book The 7-Day Back Pain Cure.

You can download a copy of my book for free by clicking right here.

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Back Pain And Incontinence In Women

Depending on the cause of back pain or incontinence, symptoms may vary. Women often struggle with stress incontinence after giving birth and leak while participating in activities that add stress to the bladder, such as laughing, sneezing, or lifting a heavy object. However, kidney problems such as stones can also cause frequent urination or urge incontinence when the urge to urinate suddenly strikes.

While studies show that in some patients the cause of back pain and incontinence is linked to weight gain or sedentary lifestyles, both conditions can also be caused by chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes and arthritis.

When it comes to giving birth, 50% of women report stress urinary incontinence. Postpartum back pain and incontinence may impact moms for up to twelve months after their babies are delivered due to pelvic floor weakness.

Pelvic floor muscles often become weakened due to the added stress of supporting a growing infant and from supporting the body during labor. Once weakened, pelvic floor muscles are less able to function under increased pressure from the abdominal muscles during physical activities, leading to leaks. Pelvic floor muscles also play a role in spinal stability.

Spinal Problems And Interstitial Cystitis

As weve seen above, both motor and sensory nerves exit the spine through three points. Each of these three points can be prone to injury.

If there is damage to the spine at any of these points, the nerves can be compressed.

For the nerves to function optimally, they need to be connected to the mother cells in the spine or to the central nervous system and they must have a continuous oxygen supply.

Any compression or damage to the nerve can cause it to lose these connections and it may start to function abnormally.

The end result could be a wide spectrum of changes to the bladder as seen in interstitial cystitis.

As shown in Gillespie et als study, this seems to be the case especially when the fifth lumbar nerve is compressed.

Unfortunately there has been a lack of more studies into the bladder-back connection. Two chiropractic papers have looked into the connection between the spine and interstitial cystitis and have found that manipulation of the spine alleviated interstitial cystitis symptoms in most cases .

Up to 90% of adults in the US alone are expected to have lower back problems at some point in their life. Because it is such a common problem, the bladder-back connection should not be ruled out.

Stay tuned for PART 2 in which Ill look at causes and solutions for bladder issues related to back problems.

Now Id like to hear from you: are you suffering from back problems on top of cystitis? Has anything helped you? Let me know in the comments!

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Pregnancy And Urinary Tract Infections

Pregnant women with a UTI that develops into a kidney infection are at higher risk of developing additional complications, which may affect both them and the fetus. Such complications include anemia, premature labor, low birth weight and, in very rare cases, stillbirth.

Fortunately, early medical intervention means that urinary tract infections in pregnant women can usually be treated successfully. If the affected person has a lower urinary tract infection, a course of oral antibiotics is the most common treatment method. If an upper urinary tract infection is suspected, the doctor may recommend administering antibiotics intravenously in hospital instead.

Once the infection has cleared, a doctor may choose to prescribe low-level, prophylactic antibiotics for the remainder of the pregnancy to reduce the risk of a UTI returning.

Pregnancy can increase the likelihood of developing a UTI. This is due to numerous factors, including hormonal changes and the increased weight of the uterus putting pressure on the bladder.

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If You’re Concerned About Bladder Cancer Ask Your Doctor About Cxbladder

Cxbladder is a non-invasive genomic urine test that quickly and accurately detects or rules out bladder cancer. The test combines clinical risk factor markers with genetic information, measuring five biomarker genes to detect the presence or absence of bladder cancer.

When should you use Cxbladder?

• When you’ve seen blood in your urine
• If tests reveal you have blood in your urine
• When you’re being monitored for recurrent bladder cancer

Cxbladder provides peace of mind and can make a meaningful difference to your care

• Cxbladder gives you certainty, resolving diagnostic ambiguity and improving overall detection accuracy.
• Most patients experiencing hematuria or who are being monitored for bladder cancer recurrence do not have cancer. Cxbladder enables the accurate rule out of patients who do not have bladder cancer, reducing the need for further invasive tests.

With performance proven in 12 peer-reviewed studies, Cxbladder is trusted by over 1,800 urologists in over 40,000 patients. The test is covered by Medicare and comes with the option of in-home sampling.

Cxbladder provides reliable results that will help your doctor make informed diagnosis and management decisions with you.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Adult Brain And Spinal Cord Tumors

Many different types of tumors can start in the brain or spinal cord. These tumors might cause different signs and symptoms, depending on where they are and how fast they are growing.

Signs and symptoms of brain or spinal cord tumors may develop gradually and become worse over time, or they can happen suddenly, such as with a seizure.

How Lung Cancer And Back Pain Are Linked

When we think about back pain, usually the last thing that comes to mind is cancer. Instead, we connect it to things like an injury, such as a muscle strain or ruptured disc. Or we may think its because of a degenerative disease, like arthritis or osteoporosis.

Back pain caused by lung cancer shares some common features with many of these disorders. Yet it also has distinct differences. These may relate to how and where the cancer causes pain, both directly and indirectly.

Some possible ways in which lung cancer can produce back pain include:

• A tumor can place direct pressure on the structure of the back, most often in the mid to upper back rather than lower back.
• A tumor can irritate the nerves that serve the lining of the lungs and chest wall. This may trigger a sharp and sometimes chronic nerve pain.
• Cancer spread from the lungs to the spine and bones happens in some 30% of people with lung cancer.
• Spread of cancer to the adrenal glands occurs in 40% of people with lung cancer, and can cause pain right above the kidney.

Healthcare providers may overlook a possible lung cancer as the cause of back pain, especially in people who have never smoked. However, at the current time, most of the people who develop lung cancer are non-smokers, either never smokers or former smokers. Lung cancer cases are rising in young women and men who have never smoked.

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How The Surgery Is Done

Surgery to remove the bladder and create a urinary diversion is a major and complicated operation. It is important to have this surgery in a specialised centre with a surgeon who does a lot of cystectomies.

Different surgical methods may be used for removing the bladder:

• Open surgery makes one long cut in the abdomen. A cut is usually made from the area below the bellybutton to the pubic area.
• Keyhole surgery, also known as minimally invasive or laparoscopic surgery, makes several smaller cuts in the abdomen. Instruments are inserted through the cuts, sometimes with help from a robotic system.

Recovery may be faster and the hospital stay may be shorter with keyhole surgery, but the surgery may be more difficult and take longer.

In general, having an experienced surgeon is more important than the type of surgery.

Talk to your surgeon about the pros and cons of each surgical method, and check what youll have to pay. Unless you are treated as a public patient in a public hospital, there are likely to substantial costs not covered by Medicare or your health fund.

Symptoms Of Kidney Cancer

The most common symptoms of kidney cancer are similar to those of bladder cancer, including blood in the urine. The urine typically appears to be deep red or rusty in color). The patient may also suffer from constant pain in the side, or experience fevers, weight loss fatigue, and a general feeling of being weak and unhealthy. The presence of a cancerous mass or lump in the side of the abdomen may be felt.

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See Redsee Your Doctor

Because the disease may have progressed unnoticed, it is critical to see a doctor once you begin to experience symptoms. Since many symptoms are similar to other medical conditions, bladder cancer is often misdiagnosed as, for example, a urinary tract infection. Ask your doctor for a referral to a urologist to rule out bladder cancer.

GET IN TOUCH

Tests That May Be Done

Physical exam: The doctor will check you for signs of bladder cancer and other health problems. This might include a rectal exam, during which a gloved finger is put into your rectum. If you are a woman, a pelvic exam might also be done. During these exams, the doctor can sometimes feel a bladder tumor.

Urine tests: For these tests, you’ll be asked to pee in a cup. Your urine is then tested for cancer cells, blood, or certain proteins .

Cystoscopy: For this exam, a doctor called a urologist looks at the inside of your bladder using a tool called a cystoscope. This is a thin tube with a tiny light and camera on its end. It’s put through the opening of your urethra and moved up into your bladder.

Blue light cystoscopy: Sometimes, special drugs are put into the bladder during the exam. Cancer cells soak up these drugs and then glow when the doctor shines a blue light through the scope. This can help the doctor see cancer cells that might have been missed with the normal light.

Bladder biopsy: This is needed to know for sure if you have bladder cancer. For this test, a cystoscope is used it to take a tiny piece of the bladder . More than one sample may be taken because sometimes cancer starts in more than one part of the bladder. Salt water washings of the inside of your bladder may also be collected to look for cancer cells. Any samples are sent to a lab and tested to see if there are cancer cells in them.

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Response To Other Treatments

If these treatments do not work and your healthcare provider suspects that there is another cause of your back pain, they may order more tests. These tests can include blood tests, MRI, and computed tomography scans, depending on your symptoms, medical history, and physical examination.

The goal of treatment is to restore function and increase strength so that you can return to your daily activities with little to no pain. When the pain does not respond to conservative treatments, surgery may be indicated in instances where there is disc herniation or other structural damage.

Cystectomy Neobladder And Urinary Diversion

A cystectomy is surgery to remove the bladder. This procedure is used to treat bladder cancer that has grown into the muscle. A partial cystectomy removes only a portion of the bladder. A radical cystectomy removes the entire bladder as well as nearby lymph nodes and organs that may contain cancer.

During a partial or radical cystectomy, the surgeon may be able to create a new bladder, called a neobladder. It is built from part of the small intestine. If a neobladder is not possible, the surgeon may divert urine through part of the small intestine to an opening on the outside of the abdomen. This is called a stoma.

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Symptoms Of Bladder Cancer

The bladder is a balloon-like organ located in the lower abdomen. This muscular sac holds the urine produced by the kidneys. Bladder cancer develops when cancerous cells develop in the lining of the bladder. The cells grow, forming tumors. If left untreated, bladder cancer can spread to the kidneys, lungs, bones, and brain. Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer among American men women can also develop the disease, though it is less common. Various symptoms can point to this dangerous illness.

What Is A Partial Or Radical Cystectomy

The most common type of cystectomy is a radical cystectomy, in which the surgeon removes the patients entire bladder, lymph nodes in the pelvis, and potentially additional tissues and organs. Male patients may have the prostate and seminal vesicles removed in female patients, surgeons may remove the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, and part of the vagina. Partial cystectomies, in which only part of the bladder is removed, are less commonly used to treat muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

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