I have been living with urethral stricture for 18yrs.
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I am a 37yrs old man. I have lived with this problem for most of my life but am still fine. One doctor told me I had to go for dilation every 3 months, and I did that for almost ten years till I found my redemption. All of this dilatations happened in my home country Lesotho, but one day my mother stood up and fought for a referral to bloemfontein in South Africa. It was successful and there is met a doctor who told me that I don't have to undergo dilatation every 3months, in fact he told me I will only dilate when I can't pee. Since then I never went for any dilatation to date. Am still doing what they long told to do as a teenager, "hydrostatic dilation" atleast that's what they called it. Every time when I pee I hold tight my dick and release at intervals till I finish. That has worked for me to date.
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glenn77 jeffrey27155
Posted
Jeffrey,
Thank you for your post. As one who had (has?) an anterior stricture in the area of the external sphincter, I find your story interesting. Surgery for BPH damaged my external sphincter, so that I leaked continuously to the point that if I walked or stood, the bladder would eventually empty. I found a doctor who implants artificial urinary sphincters (AUS), but the protocol was that you had to have a patent (open) urethra before they would do the AUS implant. I had a balloon dilation, but the stricture came back before the standard 90 day wait. I had a urethrotomy, but the stricture came back. The surgeon and his fellow (who was being trained to do implants) proposed that rather than wait 90 day wait, we would wait only 45 days after the next urethrotomy. They gave me a large (Fr 22) catheter after the urethrotomy for a week after the urethrotomy. The scheduled a return visit 6 weeks post op, and had the AUS implant scheduled for a few days later. I went back 6 weeks post op and a cystoscopy showed that I was patent, so I had the AUS implant the next week. The implant placed the cuff around the bulbous urethra, which is "down stream" of my stricture.
I had to wait 6 weeks for the AUS to be activates, as healing of two incisions and the affected area around the urethra had to take place. That was early in January of this year. What the AUS does for me is to keep the area of the stricture full of urine and pressurized, expect for the times I empty my bladder each day. It has now been 6 months since the urethrotomy, and my flow remains really good. I never heard of hydrostatic dilation before your post. I am hopeful that this effect will keep my urethra patent for the rest of my life!
glenn77 jeffrey27155
Posted
Correction. I should have said "posterior" rather than "anterior" stricture. It's too late to be typing!
glenn77 jeffrey27155
Posted
Jeffery,
One more question: How long have you been doing "hydrostatic dilation"? Has it been since you were a teenager, and can you confirm that you haven't had to dilate since then? This is information I'd like to share with my urologist who may not know about it.
Thanks,
Glenn