Need some advice please guys. Has anyone else lost their ability to urinate following an excessive hospital stay due to a physical trauma. Recently I broke my femur so was hospitalised. Whilst in hospital, I was urinating via a long term catheter. My bladder had gone into retention caused by the trauma, and a catheter was inserted. I figured it would be easier to keep the catheter throughout my hospitalisation.
Now that I’m home, I am no longer able to wee on the toilet. So I am self catheterising. I am told that this is to be expected as my brain has been receiving mixed messages.
Has anyone else experienced a similar phenomenon? How long can I except this to continue for? I sometimes take medication (tamsulosin/contiflo) to help urinate- does this medication simply reduce the bladder lining or does it help where the brain is no longer sending the message to the Bladder to urinate?
Thanks
Hello
Snap. Broke my femur in November and was on an indwelling catheter for a couple of months. I was all but decided to switch to a supra pubic catheter (which I didn’t really want as I’ve had one before and unusually, hated) then decided to go back to ISC. This I’ve done and am much happier with it.
However, where we differ is that I had already lost the ability to wee on demand. The sphincters of your bladder/urethra work in pairs. One has to contract and squeeze while the other releases simultaneously (preferably). What has happened with me is that the nerves to release the sphincter just don’t do the job at all. Thus I was already doing ISC most of the time.
I’ve not tried Tamsulosin (Contiflo looks like a trade name for Tamsulosin), looking at it, it seems to be a bit of a muscle relaxant, often used by men with enlarged prostate gland. I’d be interested if it works though.
Because I still have the urge to go - which appears to have become bladder spasms (which I didn’t have before), I’m now taking a drug called Trospium to help with this while I wait for a nerve conduction study.
Sorry not to be more helpful. Maybe others have found ways of improving their voiding following this kind of event?
Sue
My father is on Tamsulosin for enlarged prostate, exactly as Sue said, he takes this to control & calm the bladder urgency, which is a side effect of an enlarged prostate.
I wouldn’t of thought that this drug would help to activate urinating, as its more to reduce the urgency I think ?
hello
i used to rely on leaning forward against my forearms which really helped.
now everything has gone awry due, I think, to this bloody heat and humidity.
so now I press my fists against my lower belly and sometimes get more out.
so the rude saying of ‘piss off’ sounds like a blessing!