alkalized lidocaine

[Dianne]

I was reading about the trial to test the alkalized lidocaine. http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN56132730
How is this different than what people have been doing for some time? What specifically I'm wondering is lidocaine begins to burn the upper part of my urethra so bad I can hardly stand it so I had to quit several years back. I remember when I did the cocktail with bicarb, heparin, and lidocaine they all burned me. I endured it for 4 long months trying to give it my best shot but finally I just couldn't do it anymore. It never did help me. I never did equal portions of bicarb/lido though, that's not the recipe most of us used, but I found it interesting in the article that they didn't want someone voiding out the bicarb because it would burn the urethra. So why wouldn't it burn the bladder too? I always used a # 8 F catheter and what I'm wondering I guess is if I had used a larger cath, would it possibly have kept both out of the urethra. It sounds like they are going to put in the cath and drain, instill the lido and instill the bicarb immediately afterward leaving both in together for an hour with the cath still in place, drain out and pull it. For me though in the past I never found a way to keep anything out of the urethra. Whatever I instilled while it didn't hurt while I was in and even though I drained by catheter, I would always get some of whatever it was into the urethra with the first void and then my urethra would be trashed for about 48 hours. I don't know if this merits another try or not. I'm in so much pain now I hate to think of adding 48 hours of urethritis to it. I don't have urethral pain now. That is totally controlled with almond milk but the bladder is still unbearable. Thoughts anyone?

[tabasco32]

I get urethra pain too with instill. I burns sooooo bad it feel like I have to pee all the time. It goes away after a few hours but it is horrid. I don't know what causes this. I believe it may be the medicine or lidocaine, cathater, or gloves.
I have an instill in 2 days ugh. not looking forward to it. It is my 3rd one. first one was o.k. 2nd one was awful.

[Dianne]

I tried instilling sterile water once just so I'd know for sure and had no symptoms at all so it wasn't the cath, etc. For me it's the lidocaine and it lasts about 48 hours although it has lasted up to 4 days.

[Sarojini]

This test uses lidocaine followed by sodium bicarbonate, from what I can tell... it's put in in two steps, rather than mixed first; you are right, Dianne. What I notice right off is that most of us are using 1 or 2% lidocaine, and this study is using 4% lidocaine, which seems like a lot and could be very "burny," since most locals burn when they are inserted/injected (think of how novacaine burns at the dentist before it takes effect!)-- unless it is diluted quite a bit.

I think part of the study is actually also to test whether or not leaving the catheter in place will relieve any urethral symptoms associated with the instillation!

I'm not exactly sure what other differences there are as I didn't read the details very well. I DO know that lidocaine can burn me too, especially if I have not cathed in a while. It is like my urethra builds up "calluses" when I cath regularly, but they disappear when I do not... and the tender skin gets irritated easily by the catheter and the instillation solution as well.