NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — These days Mary Beth Ballard Murray is talking to her urologist about life, filling him in on her family and how good she feels. But 5-years ago, she was seeing troubling symptoms like blood in her urine.
"Didn’t think much of it. Kind of ignored it. And then it kept coming back so I finally decided to see a urologist," she said.
She almost canceled her appointment.
"I’m so glad I kept it because it really got the ball rolling to find out what was really going on," she said.
And then, at only 28-years old she had a diagnosis - bladder cancer. 60-percent of her bladder was filled with cancerous tumors.
"It was really shocking and devastating," she said. "Once i was diagnosed with cancer I decided to come to Vanderbilt for a second opinion. And that’s when I connected with Dr. Sam Chang and Vanderbilt Urology. We performed a second surgery and that really was just the key. In that second surgery they use the most advanced technology available for bladder cancer which is Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview.
The blue light illuminates tumors in the bladder. Dr Chang says using traditional white light, it's easy to miss trouble spots.
"By using the blue light the cancer cells actually light up. They have florescence," he said.
8-months after diagnosis Mary Beth was cancer free and celebrating life with her husband and son and encouraging others to be their own health adovcates.
For more information visit the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network.
