Catheter

Submitted by Michelle68 on April 1, 2006 - 9:47pm
Body: 

Hi
I posted just a couple of days ago asking if anyone knew where to get this book in Australia. I thought I'd go into a little more detail about my actual problems and what I have pretty much faced my whole life. I used to feel like I was the only person living like this until I started reading forums and gathering information on the internet. I'd seem many doctors about my problem starting from when I was a small child. I was a bedwetter until around age 9 and can always remember needing to urinate frequently and with urgency. I have no idea what a normal bladder feels like as mine has never been normal. As I grew older and fell pregnant with my first child at age 23 my symptoms just got a little worse. By age 27 my symptoms were so bad that it was affecting my life, my self-esteem and my job. Once again I went back to see doctors only to be told to do pelvic floor exercises and it would be all fixed up. I had urodymanic tests performed at around age 29 which told me I had an overactive bladder. What essentially was happening was that I my bladder would want to release when it reached a certain capacity but that it was never emptying fully. I tried phsyiotherapy with a private physio who I don't really think understood my problems. My pelvic floor was actually quite strong. She gave me a series of exercises to do which required me to go to a private room for fifteen minutes per day. With a small chld to run around after this was almost impossible. Never the less I tried as often as I could and my problems never got any better. I was also prescribed ditropan but the side effects of this drug was worse than the problem. I was taught how to self-catheterise to empty my bladder as part of a retraining regime. This gave me huge amounts of relief after my bladder emptied and I could go up to 4 hours without having to urinate whereas before it wouuld be at worse every 15 minutes and at best every hour, releasing only up to 50ml of urine. Heaven! I saw another urologist and another physiotherapist just two years ago and was told by the urologist that there is really nothing for overactive bladder except retraining which wasn't working for me and drugs which I don't want to take. I gave birth to my second child in August 2004 and it wasn't until last week that I noticed the prolapse. I was diligent about doing my pelvic floor exercises during and after pregnancy. I had a long second stage labour with him. I noticed that things hadn't got worse nor better so I thought I would be ok. I'd learned to live with it. Then I discovered the prolapse. I had an idea things were getting worse with my bladder because for the few days leading up to my discovering the cystocele I had to go to the toilet every 10 minutes or so, urgently, and then would get there and do nothing or just a dribble. Sometimes not making it in time before the dribble came out. I have taken an detailed diary of all my visits to the toilet and what I drink in the last four days and on day one and two without using the catheter I went 24 times or more. I was measuring what I was peeing and it was only between 20 and 50 mls. On day three I was so uncomfortable I decided to start catherising. Instant relief. Again I got up to between and four hours without having to go but when I did I was back to the same cycle of 20 - 50 mls. each time. I've tried all the suggested positions for releasing urine but I never get more than 50 mls at a time. I also am taking medication for a UTI and trying to keep up a high fibre diet to prevent straining when needing to poop. I guess I need to learn to live with this like it is as I'm not sure I'm prepared for surgery after doing my research.

UKmummy

April 2, 2006 - 9:20am

I am sorry you have had to go through all of this Michelle. Take care and please know that you will find a great deal of support here!
Hugs,
Michelle.

Christine

April 2, 2006 - 10:23am

Hi Michelle and welcome,

Bless your heart. At the base of the bladder between it and the urethra is a triangular platform called the bladder trigone. It’s covered in nerve connections and is the area that so often becomes damaged through operations (and obstetric births) that either dissect or shear the uterus from the bladder.

It’s through a physically active childhood that our organs take their rightful positions within the pelvis. We start out with the pelvis and abdomen in a straight line with the uterus and bladder carried very high, but over the course of seventeen or eighteen years intraabdominal pressure moves the entire pelvis – including its contents – down and back to end up at right angles to the abdominal wall! This development requires that we be on our feet running and jumping when we are young.

I really hope you will begin the postural work – both the sitting and standing positions are critical. The FAQ's here on the site describe the postures further. I would also hope that instead of the 15 minutes doing kegels or some other irritating pelvic exercise that you would find time to sit either crosslegged on the floor or in “varasana”, which is sitting down on the soles of your feet with your legs folded beneath you. Widen your feet a few inches and place a small pillow between your feet and your bottom. With your upper body stretched tall and your abdomen relaxed, your organs will take their natural positions over your pubic bone.

While in this position and maintaining all aspects of the upper body posture, begin diaphragmatic breathing. Expand your lower belly with each breath while breathing in and out through your nose. Thoughts will come and go, but stay focused on your breath and the expansion and relaxation of your lower belly. Breathe in this way for about 20 minutes and then end the session by bending forward to place your forehead on the floor. Now you are in “child’s pose” and you can rest here until you want to get up. This will stretch your lumbar spine in the opposite direction and will feel very good.

If I were you I would find time to do this both morning and evening without fail. If this, together with the postural work, has any positive effect on your condition please write us back and let us know!

Wishing you well, Michelle,

Christine

Michelle68

April 2, 2006 - 6:52pm

Thank you Christine for the exercises. I will try those. I'm still reading the book and have not yet reached the exercises section as I'm wanting to read it in the order it was written to get a whole view of things. I feel the medical profession less than helpful sometimes. When my GP diagnosed my cystocele she didn't explain to me what it was or even use the word cystocele. I had to take her referral for the specialist home and call a friend of mine who is a nurse at a woman's health information centre. My doc gave me no real information at all about it. I'm thankful that I stumbled across your website.
Thanks again.
Michelle

Michelle68

April 2, 2006 - 6:53pm

Thank you. I'm very pleased to have stumbled across the site. It's very reassuring to know you're not the only one suffering and also to hear that there are many women out there who are learning to live with this instead of resorting to invasive surgery.
Cheers
Michelle

louiseds

April 3, 2006 - 10:29am

Hi again Michelle

You have coped with a lot, and with only a little success along the way. I can relate to the distress you experienced as a child, as I experienced the same sort of symptoms. It just runs your life. My bladder control has never been wonderful, but it is manageable. I certainly can't stop urinating mid-stream, and never have been able to really.

I hope you can find some useful things to try here. Christine's advice makes so much sense. Hang in there. You are among friends.

Cheers

Louise

ann.helen

April 7, 2006 - 1:02pm

anne-helen

Hi

One of my teachers here in toronto mentioned haveing a client who had to urinate every 15 minutes and how it was a difficult case to treat as this lady also had other problems

But the teacher said that one day she found an acupuncture point which was really effective and the woman did not have to urinate till the evening and then only once.

It stuck in my mind because she told us to imagine how difficult and disruptive it would be to have this porblem.

I also remember she gave the lady herbs.

So perhaps it might be usefull for you to go to a good traditional chinese medicine acupuncturist/herbalist... it certainly won't do any harm and may put off surgery...Just a thought.

Michelle68

April 7, 2006 - 8:33pm

Hi
Thanks for your comments. I have thought about whether or not acupuncture for this may help. I'be been meaning to look into it. My GP is an acupuncturist (and Chinese) so I will ask her at my next visit. I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it before now to tell you the truth. The only thing that mainstream medicine can offer is bladder retraining which has never seemed to work for me. It requires you to hold on for longer, using a rolled up towel to sit on if necessary, to monitor your fluid intake and to do pelvic floor exercises of course. I can testify that this approach has not worked for me. I simply cannot empty my bladder fully without the use of a catheter hence recurrent UTI's. It is very disruptive and trying to live with it is burdensome. The main problem is the reaction of other people who can't believe you just can't hold on. Not fully emptying the bladder means that it is always just at full mode and this in turn signals the brain that it's time to release and so a bladder which is never fully emptied will do that every fifteen minutes or so. I come from a family of strong females none of whom have had the same problems. My mother has given birth to five children and now in her sixties is only just starting to experience some stress incontinence but it's only mild. I have never had stress incontinence nor voided when sneezing, coughing or straining although it's very hard to get the doctors to believe me about this. They get an idea fixed in their heads and it's hard to get them to understand my specific problem. I am not planning on surgery unless it's an absolute last resort and even then they would have to prove that it's life threatening for me to go down that road.

Thanks again