Bladder stuff

[Des]

My urologist told me I had choices to deal with the "spurting" when coughing or laughing. This was after a bladder/urinary tract infection/EColi. She said I could do nothing, have surgery to rein in my "floppy" bladder so it would be tighter and hold urine in on its own, or take daily antibiotics to prevent getting other urinary infections.

I already self-cath 3-4 times a day. She said maybe I should do it more often since my bladder does not completely empty on its own the regular way. This surprised me since it seems like I'm going to the bathroom all the time.

I ruled out surgery right away. It doesn't seem necessary right now. She's going to send in my latest pee-in-a-cup test to see if I have an infection, the same one or another one, then prescribe antibiotics. We'll see what happens.

[foggyrose]

This miserable disease "gets us" everywhere, doesn't it? All the embarrassing bodily systems become affected, difficulty walking or our legs become useless. Eventually there's not much quality of life left and the joy goes out of living. Good luck whatever you decide....

[Des]

I think we find joy in living, foggyrose, and there always is quality of life. Do you have a counselor/therapist to talk to about things? Sometimes they can help us see ways to do things better, and feel better.

For me, personally, I know it could be so much worse than it is. It's not the best thing that ever happened to me, but it's not the worst either.

[Aqua10]

bladder

The problem is that when you don't catheterize, you're not emptying your bladder all the way. I learned that even normal bladders don't empty fully--after peeing, there are about 400 cc's left (that's more or less 1/4 cup). When I was first being tested, I still had about 150 cc's in my bladder if I urinated without a catheter. Once in a while, I test myself: go "naturally" and when it feels like I'm done, catheterize and catch the pee in a metric measuring container (urologist gave me one) to see how well I'm emptying my bladder. Unfortunately, I noticed this: it's only when I have a urinary tract infection that I really empty my bladder! So it's not really good news if I do.

Another way of self-testing for a UTI is by using test strips. Am I allowed to say a brand name? Azo makes them. You can buy them online thru several different sites if you can't find them at a drugstore.

[Des]

So you cath every time. Aqua10? That's going to be more often than I do now. My uro wanted to know how many times a day I go to the bathroom everyday. Can anybody answer that???

I kept forgetting to count, so one day when I was home all day, I made sure to use the same bathroom every time and kept a pen and paper in there. After all that, I found out I went 8 times a day. When I told the uro, she said that's normal. So I guess I went through all that for nothing.

[Des]

I got a call from my uro's office telling me I have another UTI. Geez, is this ever going to get better?

Anyway, they said as soon as my scrip for antibiotics for the infection was finished, I should start the daily dose of antibiotics to hopefully prevent this from happening again.

[mtnwillow]

Oh Des, if 8 times is normal, I'm in big trouble. I probally go 30 times in a 24 hr period. lol

[Des]

I would have said I went more than that, too, mtnwillow, until I actually counted the times. Surprise, it only seemed like I went hundreds of times every day.

[Aqua10]

self-cath

[QUOTE=Des;1310016]So you cath every time. Aqua10? That's going to be more often than I do now.

I do it only 2-3 times a day, and frankly it's usually just 2x (before heading out for the commute, and before going to bed). I know it's supposed to be more like 4x/day, but I give myself UTI's about once a month or once every two months, no matter how incredibly careful I am with cleaning, so I hesitate before doing it when I don't need to. Sad, because it would be great to do it all the time, if not for that . . . and the time involved with all that "incredibly careful" cleaning of everything involved. Yes, I'm a tiny bit paranoid nowadays.