New here, so anxious

I'm 52 and have a ball valve presentation too. deemed a bladder obstruction but i seem to be voiding some and never feel close to retaining fluid.

my bladder also never feels full because I have to go urinate every 40 min to hour. Is that why your bladder never feels full to you --because of the frequency? Have you tried drinking alot of water quickly (say 20 to 25oz) to stimulate your bladder to create a greater urge. this is what they do when they measure your post void residual. It may not be a good thing for you to do if you have been on a foley cath and can't urinate much.

earlier this year I would feel retained when I was voiding less. It felt like my bladder wasn't emptying and that is more typical of BPH I think.

at 51, I wouldn't assume TURP is your best option. I have been told Aquablation is better because of the lower risk of retrograde ejaculation. You should see if someone does that in your area. Alot depends on how large your prostate is too for a TURP. At around 80cc/grams, the uro can still do the TURP but they might start pushing you to something like an Aquablation since the resection time is faster (although with set up it time of the computer it may be about the same). You can also look into epTURP which some urologists try to do (ejaculation sparing). Look up Dr. Pohlman and Prostate Health Academy online. If you're in the Mid-West, it may be worth a visit to him since he does both aquablation and epTURP.

I could not get the intermittent cathetherization done so I understand your fear. All of it is fear inducing but once you get over the shock that this is really happening to you at this age, you should just focus and visualize on being able to urinate well again and preserving a healthy bladder for the future.

by the way, we are clearly in the minority in our 50's having to have a resecting procedure since the average age is low to mid 60's, but a fair number of people get TURPs and similar in the early to late 50's. Some even in their late 40's on this board. The one thing I'm trying to figure out is what such a procedure, which generally cuts into the urinary bladder neck and renders that internal spinchter incompetent, will mean if I live 25 or 30 years into the future. after this type of procedure only one spincther (the external one) is working. As you age that muscle will weaken. So does that necessarily mean incontinence in the future or leakage? most people don't think about the future with something like this but take it day by day and hope for 10 years before having to do something again, but i'm just wondering what the long term impact of starting so young is. If i ever need another procedure, i won't care about preserving my ejaculate so much and will go with a HOLEP type procedure since I believe the odds of needing another repeat are lower with that. with aquablation, the long term permanence are not known yet.

51 is young to have a Turp, but some people do it. You will most likely end up with Retrograde Ejaculation (RE). The Urologists will tell you that the Retrograde Ejaculation is no big deal, but I don't believe that, I would not want it myself. I have experienced it due to Flomax (Tamsulosin), but it is temporary then. When I took Flomax I would only have RE for about 12 hours. So if you time it right you still have ejaculation when you need it. Plus when you stop taking Flomax the ejaculation comes back within a day or so. I would avoid drugs like Avodart that shrink the prostate, because they cause Erectile Dysfunction (ED) which can be more permanent than the urologists might lead you to believe.

Before you have a Turp you should try some of the drugs like Flomax . It relaxes the prostate and bladder neck making it easier to urinate. Before you try Turp or other surgeries you should have a lot more testing done, like: Flow rate test, Post void residual test, Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) to estimate size, Trans Rectal Ultra Sound (TRUS) to accurately measure the size. The Urologist will probably also want to do Cystoscopy to measure size of the prostate, look for urethral strictures, and look for a protruding median lobe.

You can also ask a Urologist's office to show you how to self catheterize. I have been doing it for 4.5 years now, and it is not bad. You can avoid the drugs and surgeries and keep all you sex functions. There are some excellent discussions about it on this web site started by Jim James.

I'm in the same boat, at 48. I ended up in the ER because I couldn't void at all about 6 months ago. I'm on flomax, so now I have retro and I still have issues peeing some times. I also never feel like I fully empty my bladder and sometimes feel an ache in my lower abdomen, probaby due to urine retention.. I travel with catheters now, but haven't needed to use them. I'm going to have aquablation done next year when my new insurance kicks in. I also have my prostate pushing into my bladder. In my case it is my anterior lobe. The ultrasound measusured my prostate size in the 90cc range. It sucks to have this issue so young. I would like to know what causes this issue in some people.

Well i guess the time has to come for CiC.

sink or swim i guess. I'm voiding some but my stream is weak. The odd thing is i hardly feel the need to urinate. so i i have gone from "gotta go now" to very little urge. interestingly coffee and alcohol create a strong urge to urinate. neither is ideal.

I don't want the Foley and i know that CIC 4-5 times a day will give me my life back. I just cant shake the fear of pain.

as a reminder, uro did a scope and said median lobe is creating a ball valve effect. TURP mentioned, but id prefer to CIC for 10-20 years if i could.

thanks for the help. JimJames posts have been great but i am unclear which direction to pull the urethra