bladder capacity???

[shennan]

anyone know if someone can regain bladder capacity? gotta ask my uro...
everything i have read indicates that once the bladder is scarred and shrinks, per say, it cannot regain full capacity.

hmmmm...

mine is 400 ml under anaesthesia, with severe petechial hemorrhaging.

thanks in advance.

:cat:

[XoChelsey03Xo]

I know that when I had my cysto/hydro my uro said my bladder might stay stretched out for awhile. I don't know how long that might be though. That would be a good question to ask. If you find out, let us all know. Chelsey

[ICNDonna]

Some ICers are able to regain some capacity by bladder retraining. You can read about it in the Patient Handbook at http://www.ic-network.com/handbook

Hydrodistention does increase capacity for a while.

Donna

[XoChelsey03Xo]

:thumbsup: sorry my computer is messing up

[shennan]

the handbook has some good stuff in it.

i found some stuff on teas and herbs.

http://www.ic-network.com/handbook/herbs.html

very good.

thanks!!

:)

shenna

[Amanda]

The whole idea of 'bladder retraining' makes me hurt. Holding urine longer than it takes me to run to the bathroom is enough for me!

Amanda

[ICLori]

Amanda, there are two types of bladder capacity - the capacity under anesthesia, and the capacity that you live with every day - how much urine your bladder can hold while you are awake. Generally you can hold much more liquid or urine when you are awake, than you can while you are out under anesthesia.

My uro explained to me that with bladder retraining, you can increase your awake capacity, but nothing can be done at this point to increase your capacity under anesthesia.

Blessings, Lori

[kadi]

Bladder retraining is supposed to be done when your pain is controlled.... I've done it myself, it's not comfortable, but it did help in the long run. When done right, it's done slowly, increasing the time between voids by very small increments and after 3 months or so, you can see the difference. One thing the literature suggests is to have follow up & support from a nurse in doing this because it's so slow & frustrating. I think having a nurse help me would have been great, but no one seems to have that available.

[Sarojini]

I am recently attempting bladder retraining under the supervision of my physical therapist for PFD. It doesn't always work as planned, but as Kadi says, it's slow and frustrating anyway. We're pretty sure I'll NEVER have a completely normal bladder capacity due to scar tissue in my bladder, but we think we may be able to increase it some-- and also train me not to panic when I first feel the urge to pee!

[shennan]

i thought a person can hold more urine under anaesthesia than while awake.

if i understand it correctly, if a bladder only holds 500 ml while under, the bladdder can only hold half of that while awake.

500 ml while under anaesthesia = 250 ml awake.

???????

thanks....

they should have a smile face for not feeling well. that would be my face for today. :^(

[ICLori]

Yes, that's true. You can hold much more under anesthesia (because anesthesia takes away the pain) than you can normally.

What bladder retraining seems to do is not physically enlarge the bladder in any sense (because no matter how well you retrain your bladder, you will never attain a functional capacity that will be the same as your capacity under anesthesia, let alone greater than your capacity under anesthesia) but teaches a person to ignore the signals to go. Sort of like a psychological trick I think. Like if you ignore the signals to go long enough, eventually your body will get used to it and you won't notice the pain signals anymore so much.

If it were just a matter of the physical size of the bladder, you would be able to comfortably hold 400ml in your bladder while awake - but you can't. Because what happens is, the complex set of nerves in your bladder becomes engaged, and it causes an intense urge to go and pain. Each person's threshold for that is different, depending on how badly damaged the bladder lining is. For instance, when you are having a flare, your functional bladder capacity - the threshold at which you first sense the need to go - might only be 50ml, much less than say when you are not flaring, when it might be 200ml.

But no matter how hard you retrain your bladder, you will never be able to hold 400ml awake (as you can during anesthesia) and your capacity under anesthesia can not be made larger unless they operate because the bladder will not stretch beyond it's capability. It's like the bladder is a balloon that is wrapped tightly with string - unless you cut away all the string (scar tissue) the balloon can't expand beyond a certain amount.

Bladder retraining is just a way to teach your body not to send the "gotta go" signals quite so soon. It does not actually physically stretch or enlarge your bladder at all.

Blessings, Lori

[shennan]

thanks.

you always have good info. what was your vocation? were you a teacher?
you almost write like you could have been a writer?!

thanks lori!!! ;)

shenna

[ICLori]

Oh, Shenna, thank you so much! :) I used to want to be a writer but then as I grew up I realized I didn't have anything interesting or important to say so I didn't try to write.

This IC stuff is pretty frustrating, isn't it? I am hoping the bladder retraining will help you use more of the bladder that is available to you. If you can even just use 200ml, that might cut your frequency/urgency way down. If you were to measure each time you void, you might be surprised by how little urine is actually causing you to have that "gotta go" feeling. If your body can somehow stay quiet until it has a full cup or so of urine in the bladder, you might be getting alot closer to more "normal" voiding patterns. (Sometimes I don't know what normal is - gosh if you go to a ball game or what not, the womens restrooms are always full and have a line, but the mens aren't usually. Does that mean we women void way more often than men, even those of us who aren't diagnosed with IC? Sometimes I wonder.)

Blessings, Lori

[Evea]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that I've tried to retrain my bladder. I feel it has helped somewhat. I can usually go about 1 1-2 hours to 2 hours before I feel I need to go and if I can, I try to stretch it to 3.

My question is how long is considered normal to go between voids? I know that a lot of you state that if you hold it you have pain, but it seems to become more painful for me if I go more than once every 3 hours ( of course that is when I'm not in a flare)

Anyone else know these answers or have the same situation?

[shennan]

i am not to the point of retraining yet. still trying to get rid of the pain and all the other symptoms...

thanks!

:)

you are a great writer and have lots of great stuff to say. :bow:

:cat:

shenna

[XoChelsey03Xo]

i thought a person can hold more urine under anaesthesia than while awake.

if i understand it correctly, if a bladder only holds 500 ml while under, the bladdder can only hold half of that while awake.

500 ml while under anaesthesia = 250 ml awake.

???????

thanks....

they should have a smile face for not feeling well. that would be my face for today. :^(

Yeah I think my uro said your bladder holds more fluid while your under anaesthesia? :hmm: Chelsey

[tigger_gal]

alrighty thats pretty bad... I held 350 undersedation at my first hydro. had my 2nd hydro and stretched it to 650cc's and know that I am back down, because of frequency and more increased pain.... So I only have a guessing here at a 175 cc bladder awake..... :yikes: guess that explains alot....... :hmm:
Brat

[curlycue]

WOW you ladies are so informative I am so proud of you ladies and keeping you on all this info. I had asked my URO and he kind of explained it but you ladies know sooo much more.