Re: Symptoms Much Worse At Night

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 14:58:18 -0400, "Pete" <pete@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>"Ed" <ed@xxxxx> wrote in message
>news:faglj113c5m0srai42qukamevb5gp7b12d@xxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> In the first years I had retention only during the day, caused by such
>> things as having to drink 4 glasses of water for an ultrasound.
>
>Ed...I have had many ultrasounds in my life (usually at my request - only
>takes the nurse 5 minutes), and I have never drank water before them. I
>drink water for the urine flow test, not the ultrasound.
>
>I am curious about this. Your uro's must have a different approach. I can
>kind of see the logic, but not totally. The ultrasound checks how much
>urine is in your bladder immediately after you have urinated or voided, to
>see how much urine you are retaining (for whatever reason - usually a
>blockage of some sort).
>
>I don't necessarily see why you need to drink water first (I guess to insure
>you have urine in your bladder, assuming your kidneys are working okay). In
>other words you don't need to drink water first to do the ultrasound.
>Whether you drink first or you don't drink first, if you void yourself
>before the test your bladder should be empty, or close to empty. Do you see
>my point. Like I said, I have never drank the water first. I find this
>interesting and welcome your comments back on what your uro's logic is for
>drinking the water. Thanks...Pete

Pete,

Those ultrasounds were done in connection with prostate biopsies. As I
understand it, the water is needed to help assess the condition of the
bladder. The bladder examination is done before voiding.

Of course the primary use of the ultrasound is to guide the needle
into the prostate, and the water is not needed for that. In fact, you
void before the biopsy part of the procedure. Since I know that my
bladder is probably in satisfactory shape, I now omit the water to
avoid acute retention.

Ed
.