Re: Symptoms Much Worse At Night


"Ed" <ed@xxxxx> wrote in message
news:faglj113c5m0srai42qukamevb5gp7b12d@xxxxxxxxxx
> On 28 Sep 2005 05:23:39 -0700, "kap" <stevkaprel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>I started having urinary problems about seven years ago. About 3 l/2
>>years ago, I began to have "almost" acute urinary retentions at night
>>(almost completely blocked but going away in an hour or an hour and a
>>half). A month ago, I had my first AUR and catheterization.
>>
>>All of the "almosts" and the AUR occured at night. I am always ok
>>during the daytime, except for frequency.
>>
>>Is this experience typical? Does it suggest any kind of syndrome in
>>particular?
>
> I have had similar experiences. My problem is that my flow becomes
> slow when my bladder is nearly full, and flow stops altogether when it
> is too full. Very nasty... in other words, when I need to pee the
> most, I can't pee at all.
>
> 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. These
> days my problems are more at night... probably because I have
> developed some degree of urgency that ensures I pee in time when I'm
> awake (and I defy the radiologists by not drinking all that water
> before ultrasounds), and because my bladder size has become less. That
> latter fact means I get up two or three times during the night... but
> because I'm asleep, I might get up a bit too late, when my bladder is
> over-full. Then peeing is very difficult or (occasionally) impossible.
>
> When I'm critically full, typically I can (with great effort) produce
> a few cc's but can't sustain flow. So it stops after maybe 5-10 ccs.
> Then I temporarily feel great relief and no need to pee any more...
> even though I'm still critically full, with an aching bladder. I have
> to wait about 5 min before I can produce another batch, hopefully with
> more volume than before. In this way, with each 5-min session, I can
> increase the flow stepwise and rescue myself. This requires about
> 20-45 minutes total.
>
> Sometimes I just can't produce enough in these intervals to equal the
> inflow from the kidneys... and then I go into complete retention,
> unable to produce even a drop.
>
> So then it is time to go to emerg for a catheter. But my experiences
> there have been bad... each time having to wait 2 hours or so for
> relief. By then I have more than 1 liter in my bladder, and it is so
> over-stretched that the capillary blood vessels are bleeding and there
> is risk of permanent damage.
>
> Nowadays I do self-catheterization (against the advice of my first
> uro) ... no waiting and much less stress. If you want to do this,
> better ask your uro about it or do it at your own risk.
>
> My prostate is ~150 cc. I take Flomax and it has helped quite a bit to
> reduce the incidence of retention.
>
> Ed

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


.