How bad is urodynamics testing
Posted , 7 users are following.
Hi You all
I've been on this forum for yearsm and I do cic everyday; get my catheters through medicare in the U.S.
My old Urologist retired and I have a new young team. They are not tryint to rush me into surgery right away. I had an MRI done a few weeks ago which turned out pretty well; no sign of cancer as my PSI levels have been high for a long time. So that was good news.
Now they want to do a urodynamics test which is supposed to take over an hour to perform. Sounds like an ordeal. Any advice.
The thing about it is that I'm doing cic about 4 times a day and have been doing it for over 5 years. It's working well and until I find a surgical procedure I can live with with reliable outcomes, I think I'll keep on doing this.
I'm wondering though if inserting more tubes up my urethra and shooting water up there ( or whatever they do) is going to irritate it to the point where I will get blood or soreness afterwords when I need to cath. The doctor says that if my bladder has no elasticity left in it from when I was in full retention, there is no need to do surgery because it won't help anyhow. Any insight would be appreciated. I still have a couple of weeks before the tests. I am getting pretty good pressure when I cath, so I guess I don't see why they can't just be present when I cath and take measurements from that.
0 likes, 6 replies
compiler keith42667
Posted
No pain at all. How large is the prostate? What is the bladder trabeculation grade? Is there any bladder stone?
keith42667 compiler
Posted
I don't know what a trabeculation grade is. No bladder stones that I'm aware of. I had an MRI done a couple of months ago looking for tumors (or whatever they want that for. I haven't seen me new Urologist since he ordered that so I haven't seen an interpretation of that procedure. My daughter is going to a medical assistant college and told me some of what the jargon said be she couldn't interpret all of it either. So I'll find out more when I go in for the procedure. I'm not so much worried about the pain but rather if it's going to interfere with the cic that I do on a daily basis.
lawrence36690 keith42667
Edited
I had a urodynamic test prior to my 5th (count 'em) BPH surgery. The test was really not all that bad, as once the wires and tubes were in place you just wait until you feel the need to pee and that's it. That test lead to my diagnosis, similar to yours, no elasticity or in my case "neurogenic" bladder. So I wound up using CIC for over a year (usually 2x a day, sometimes only once) to supplement my natural flow. As you know it only takes a few minutes.
So, bottom line, although I am not sure what the test would do for you, it is not to be feared.
Let us know what happens.
BTW, the price that Medicare pays for the CIC is nothing short of ridiculous but that's our system in the US. $10.49 each. I see them for as little as $1.50 but this all beside the point. Good luck!
geoffrey17669 keith42667
Posted
I had a urodynamics test a few days ago.
I am not used to pushing things up inside my penis, and I found the insertion of the (small) test tube very uncomfortable. I made it painful for the urologist by screaming a bit, but he managed manfully. I'm a wimp, I guess. Once it was in, it was only slightly uncomfortable. I'd say that anyone who does self-catheterisation need not fear this test. They'll walk it. 😃
Inserting the anal probe was much less bad. I just winced a bit. YMMV. It's just a tiny tube in a much larger hole, with a little something on the end to make sure it doesn't fall straight out again.
The test itself was okay. Removing the probes was mildly uncomfortable. Some discomfort for 24 hours afterwards, whilst peeing. No problems with sex a couple of days later.
On a scale of 0-10, where 10 was where I passed out from the pain, I'd rate this at 5 for inserting the probe in the urethra, and 3 for inserting the probe in the ass. The procedure itself, which takes around 20 minutes, was 1-2.
For my test, I had water pumped in at 20 mls per minute. This seemed quite slow, and that may have reflected my making a fuss earlier. The urologist pumped in 450 mls, which obviously took 22 minutes. Then he stood back, and I pee'd into a bucket.
geoffrey17669
Posted
I'll just add that my test showed that the pressure in my bladder went off the chart. This is apparently good, as it shows my bladder is working fine, although I have an obstruction limiting the outflow (which is a lot less fine).
Holep here I come, it seems. 😦((((
keith42667
Posted
My procedure was today. Right on cue, last night when I did CIC I got a lot of blood. Unusual for me. There have been a few times over the years when I had a small amount of blood in the catheter when I pull it out, but this time there was way more than usual. I guess this was good because I saw the doctor today and was able to tell him about it. Also had to cath right before the procedure (I took my travel bag with me). The doctor ended up concluding that it was just cath irritation. The next time I cathed it was much reduced; back to normal more or less.
That bad news is that he concluded that I have an atonic bladder. He says it will never return to normal. He had me tell him when the water pumped in slowly was felt in my bladder. I knew I wasn't feeing a normal feeling or rather, normal intensity, but apparently it still takes an uacceptable amount of urine in my bladder before I can really feel it and way too much in there for me to pee any out with a natural void. I appreciate his honesty that there really is no need for surgery because it wouldn't do me any good. The damage is already done. Then he offered me a permanent catheter put in through my stomach or that I just do what I've been doing for the last 5 years and do CIC. He warned me about leaving any in my bladder because of bacteria building up and also to protect my kidneys.
He said I should cath from 4 to 7 times a day to make sure I get my bladder emptied. I guess I'm going to have to go back to watching the clock and keeping a log. He said to keep my bladder at 500 ml or less to avoid problems.
I have a few guesses how I got here. Feeling kind of blue because I had still held out some hope that eventually my bladder would recover. I still don't understand exactly how my BPH fits into this. Now I"m not actually sure if I have BPH. I'll have to get a message to my uro doc and ask him that directly. He had little to say about the results for the MRI. Nothing urgent I guess as he made another appointment 6 months from now.