Confused
Posted , 10 users are following.
HI,
im wondering if anyone can shed any light on my current situation?
i'll keep it as brief as possible .
Four years ago i started having problems urinating , after numerous tests i was diagnosed with chronic prostatitis from a prostate biopsy. This cleared up after 3 months. Flow was better but still poor.
A year ago it flared up again and flow was very bad , urodynmic study diagnosed severe bladder obstruction and URO recommended a bladder neck incision, after some great advice from Ken and others i decided against this and flow was slightly improved by alpha blockers. Over several months flow got worse again and i ended up in hospital for 7 days with acute retention and UTI.
i was fitted with a catheter and when it was removed after two weeks i still had severe retention of 300 ml.
i them self cathed for a couple of months and noticed my natural flow was significantly improving . My latest urodynamics study showed no problem, virtually no retention and flow improved from 3 to 13 !! he did see some muscle tissue that was in an unusual place.
Anyway, im comvinced that being catheterised and self cathing has " unblocked" the pipe somehow as i am now urinating like a teenager with no retention . Four years of constant urinary problems seem to have completly reversed since using a catheter ( which i no longer need)
I cant find anything on line to support my theory but i cant see any other explanation?
Any thoughts anyone ?
Many thanks Darren
0 likes, 16 replies
Lookngforoption dcooperxyz
Posted
Great news, can I ask what size of cath that you were using ? I just started CIC 2 weeks ago because I was concerned that I was retaining urine and sure enough, I am retaining about 250ml.
I have tried a 14 and 12 straight tip, non-lubed cather because I am paying for them out of pocket. I prefer the 12 because they are somewhat less painful to insert but if using a larger size would increase the pipe size, I might have to reconsider.
The 14 is easier to insert because the cath is firmer but certainly causes more residual discomfort, but again I have only been doing CIC for 2 weeks and the discomfort resolves after 30 minutes or so.
oldbuzzard Lookngforoption
Posted
Use whatever size is the easiest. Lots of men like the coloplast 14 cudee. Often the cudees are more comfortable but you won't open the pipe more with a larger size.
dcooperxyz Lookngforoption
Posted
Hi
the caths are size 12 compact lubed by Coloplast. For anyone thinking about doing CiC for the first time Ihave found it easy, and painless . Takes less than a minute and if you have retention its a great relief.
oldbuzzard dcooperxyz
Posted
This happens a lot - including on men who have been told there is no hope for them. Many take longer than you did to recover. A good guess as to what happened is that whatever inflamed your prostate caused your bladder to be damaged from forcing and your self cathing gave it time to rehab itself.
hank1953 dcooperxyz
Posted
How do you know that you no longer have retention? It was what I felt like sometimes but self cathing always proved me wrong.
dcooperxyz hank1953
Posted
Hi Hank, because they measured it on the latest urodynamic study and it was only 17 ( down from 300) Also the first time I self cathed ( after a few beers) i had an incredible 600 ml left in my bladder !!. Recently, also after a few too many beers it has been hovering 50-85.and under 50 on a normal day .
hank1953 dcooperxyz
Posted
Are you still taking alpha blocker ?
dcooperxyz hank1953
Posted
I am Hank, yes just out of habit really as before CiC they had stopped working. I have a follow up with my URO in a couple of weeks and i expect to come off them .
hank1953 dcooperxyz
Posted
I would check the retention few days after stopping alpha blocker because it may helping right now. Nevertheless, to be able to recover that well, your bladder is in fairly good shape and your obstruction was minimal. Many people with chronic urinary retention (been having retention for a long time) ended up with a badly stretched bladder and self cathing for a long time, unless having a procedure, or forever, if the procedure could not help. Take care!
TKM dcooperxyz
Posted
dc,
Jim James also recuperated his bladder after CIC, to the point he only had to self cath a couple times per week. He has not posted on this site for about 5 months now, but he originated a few good discussions about CIC. If you have not seen them yet, search for them.
Thomas
dcooperxyz TKM
Posted
thanks Thomas ill do that
brian34488 dcooperxyz
Posted
Hi-did u have an ultra sound and if did it show your prostate had grown upwards against your bladder?
dcooperxyz brian34488
Posted
Hi Brian
yes had several ultrasounds and a cysoscopy all showed normal prostate
kenneth1955 dcooperxyz
Posted
Good morning Darren
This is very good for you. I think a lot of it has to do with the doctor really don't know how to fix the problem per say. Cutting out the prostate is the only thing they know.
I think what happen to you is that having the catheter in for them 2 weeks helped your bladder fix itself or the tube made a new grove of some type.
Same with my stricture. Having larger catheter put in made it wider. It has not been a problem.
We all have to think about what JimJames did. 4 years ago he was told that he needed a Turp to fix his retention. He said no. And did CIC over time he fixed his retention and was able to pee on his own. You ask a doctor they do not know how that will happen. They want to do the quick way but why do it if it is not going to work and you don't want the side effect that come with the procedure.
I do not know if I'm going to say this the right way. I feel that there are many Urologist see the best way to help there patients and will listen to there concerns. But then you have some that are sales men that they are trying to sell you the procedure. It comes to a numbers game.
This is your life and it is not a game. Ask question and if you do not get the answers you are looking for move on to another doctor. You will know from how he is talking to you.
Good luck to all and I am very happy for you Darren
Take care Ken
tom86211 dcooperxyz
Posted
I am going to take an educated guess here about how this works: first, the prostate enlarges and then makes it progressively more difficult to pass urine, so the bladder muscles have to work harder to squeeze against the resistance. So, the muscles get stronger, thicken up. Alpha Blockers, like Flomax relax the muscles so it's easier to pee. Perhaps CIC also relaxes the muscles because they don't have to "work" to squeeze the urine out, and over a period of time, as those muscles relax, they get weaker, allowing for a stronger stream.
Again, just a guess. Perhaps this is not how the plumbing works. Any success reported here is a great thing...
Tom