I was up in the nigh twice for a wee which is normal practise for me because I can never get through a night without weeing. But this was odd. Bear in mind my hubby has to take me to the toilet, poor hubby was up with me. I sat there and couldn’t go…just nothing. Eventually it dribbled out but the bladder didn’t empty either time.
This morning my first morning wee wouldn’t happen. Nothing at all.
I rang the doctor and there were no appointments so she rang me back. She said she needs a sample to check for an infection but if I cannot get my bladder to empty I must have a catheter and to go to A&E for a catheter.
Thankfully I managed to wee in the shower. Hubby has collected a sample pot from the surgery.
All the while I have gone severely numb on the right side of my body…
All this coincides with us sending off the ESA form which has worried me quite a bit. The form ws posted before this happened …we could have put it down suppose.
Have you taken / sent your wee sample to your GPs to check for a UTI? And have they told you the result? If they say there’s an infection, check that they’ve sent the sample to the lab for testing rather than just issue you with a 3 day antibiotic course.
It’s important to drink lots of water, even if you are having trouble weeing. If you don’t drink sufficient water, your wee will become too strong and even if you don’t have an infection now, it may turn into one.
There are a few things you can try to make your bladder empty. If you raise your feet up, ie by putting them on a plastic box or something and / or lean forward whilst you sit on the loo. Also, try massaging / pressing on your stomach to stimulate your bladder. There’s also a device you can buy that vibrates which you sort of press on your lower abdomen. The vibrations are supposed to stimulate the bladder to empty. If you had a device that did a similar type of vibrating thing (!) you could try that.
Hopefully it will resolve itself, but if you’re not weeing and there is no UTI, and you’ve tried everything you can think of to try, you should go to the hospital.
No sooner had I spoken to the doctor I wee’d…typical!
It wasn’t right though. Hubby helped me onto the bath chair and I managed to stand up in the shower. I thought I would try letting it go in the shower…it worked and I haven’t had a problem since except my bladder doesn’t feel right. A bit stingy. A sample has been sent and I expect to hear that there is no infection. I have a feeling it’s connected to the numbness and an MS problem.
Never had it before though! AND I don’t want it back!!!
Well I have been weeing but it has been ‘different’ if you know what I mean. I have put the antibiotics on a shelf because an infection is a false alarm. It’s something else. I’m not weeing right and I don’t think my bladder is emptying.
I wondered is it a good idea to start a broadspectrum antibiotic as soon as possible?, but still get the urine sample sent off to the lab. Then at least a start has been made on the infection. Then when the results are given the new antibiotic can be started when the bacerial strain is recognised…
There may be a chance the broadspectrum antibiotic could work. This has happened to me once.
Yes of course, I didn’t mean don’t start an antibiotic as a broad response. Really all I meant was to make sure the sample gets sent to the lab whilst starting an antibiotic. Some GP practices don’t send samples to the lab in every case.
Personally I dislike the practice of issuing a 3 day course of trimethoprim (which is what my surgery tends to do). It would be unusual that a 3 day course would actually kill the infection, meanwhile our bodies are getting used to insufficient doses of a drug and it’s likely that the lab will take longer than 3 days to id the bacterium. I have a repeat prescription arranged with my doctor for a full 7 day course of nitroferantoin. If I get a UTI I can at least take a 7 day course. Then if it doesn’t work, the results from the lab should be back and if necessary another antibiotic issued.
Not being able to wee when you want (hesitancy) and not being able to empty your bladder completely when you wee are both very common MS symptoms. I have had the first for years and still have. I had the second for years and used to self catheterise every day. Now I don’t have the problem, for some reason that is not clear to me.
For me, it was very helpful to get a reference to a continence nurse. You might try it - they can do a scan of your bladder and tell you what’s going on.
I had a bacterial infection around two years ago that meant I was crawling around my flat, very heavy legs. Then got UTI and sore throat. My legs were so painful to stand. The GP surgery were rubbish and I was advised that the urine sample needs to be sent off to lab before I could get any kind of antibiotic. Ten days later I got to start an antibiotic, this was way too late and my legs have not recovered they are painful to stand. The GP forgot to call me to give me my urine test results, after me chasing them, then it was the weekend. I even saw a general neuro on day six who wasn’t convinced it was an infection, he was wrong. He gave me no advice, he didn’t ask me if I had bladder issues.
I don’t go to the GP surgery now if have infection, I go to Out of Hours GP at hospital and ask for antibiotics there and then if have bacterial infection, I take urine sample with me. I wrote a annoyed letter to the GP surgery and got an apology. Too late the damage is done.
I don’t understand why I was not told any of this by medical professionals when I was diagnosed with MS. Even a leaflet telling this would of been very helpful.
The other thing you could do it to buy your own urinalysis test strips and if you think you have an infection, test it yourself, then send a positive result to the GP (or go to the out of hours hospital GP). It’s actually very easy to do. If you’re interested, I can give you the information that you need to test your own.
Thanks Sue, I use test strips I got online but my knowledge of what to look for on the strip is basic, just what is said on the strip container and a bit off the web. I could do with more knowledge.
Leukocytes and protein are indicators of infection and possibly blood - is that right. Is there anything else that might indicate infection? thanks
If you get faint pink leucocytes only, drink loads of water and retest after a day. Often it sorts itself out.
If you have either nitrites or protein showing (you’d expect leucocytes as well) then there’s infection.
Blood can show infection, but obviously there could be other reasons for blood (for women).
Make sure you wait the full 2 minutes, although in my experience, when there’s infection it takes a lot less than 2 minutes to have bright pink nitrites and leucocytes and greeny blue protein.
And check that your test strips are in date and stay completely dry. Before you test, check the strip against the plastic canister to ensure the squares are the colour of negative results.
If you have had a lot of infections, think about what you are doing to prevent them. Some people swear by d-mannose tablets, or cranberry tablets or juice. Personally, I think drinking lots of plain water and keeping super clean is the key. I was boasting a couple of weeks ago that although I do ISC, I’d not had an infection since Autumn 2014. The following week I got a UTI! So in my case, boasting seems to have been a factor.
The information in the box isn’t that helpful as really they are designed for professional use, but if you see the information above, that’s really all you need.
You could see a continence nurse if you’re still having trouble. You may find that intermittent self catheterisation is a good idea if you’re not emptying your bladder naturally. It sounds like a big deal but it’s a lot easier than it seems at the beginning.
Thanks for writing this Sue, that’s really helpful. I’ve snapped a pic of your post so I can refer if/when I need to. Ive got a bottle of the test strips but I’ve never really been 100% sure on the differences between the leucocytes & protein levels. I do now though so thank you two times! x