Had my hydro and have a ???

[born2swim]

My urogyno did my hydro yesterday (as well as laparoscopic exploratory surgery). My pelvis looked perfect. No sign of endometriosis Thank God. There was a very long adhesion under a lot of tension that he felt would explain the "strange pain" I get that is unlike endo or IC. He took that down and then did the hydro. He put in 500cc's. I was waking up from anesthesia (but not enough for me to remember it). He said that my body responded to it and he didn't want to put any more in due to my small capacity. I woke up in recovery feeling a lot of cramping type pain in my pelvis and burning in my urethra. In pre-op holding, I asked him if he will leave me cath'ed and he said no. Thank God! That would have made things worse! They gave me pain meds (the lap. gas the use to insuflate the abdomen for exploratory surgery hurts more than anything right now).

Question: is it normal to have retention after a hydro? I had 2 surgeries before and never had hesitation, spurts of urine, or retention with anesthesia or pain meds. This is quite annoying. If retention is common, how long would it take to improve?

Thanks for the advice before going in! I'm feeling find. Sore, but fine. No burning or pelvic pain. The pain I have is in the shoulders and back from the other part of the sugery (adhesion removal and lap. gas pain).

[leelee88]

I am glad you are doing ok.. :angel:
Yes retention is normal after a hydro..So the doctor did rule out IC?

[GriffsMommy]

I didn't personally have any retention after my hydro. It was hard to pee the first time but I think that's because I was scared because I was afraid it would hurt. I know that some people have had retention though. I would probably call your dr's office today and mention it if it doesn't get better.

[mary124]

I usually don't but at least once I had retention really bad, this was last November. Had to keep going to the doctors where he really wouldn't do anything, (needless to say he isn't my doctor anymore) so i went to the ER and they cath me; learned to cath myself as I had problems for almost 2 weeks afterwards. (this was the only time though, and i have had 8 hydros so far); had a hydro back in April and had no problems with it.

[ICNDonna]

I had some retention after the first one of my 41 hydrodistentions. Warm sitz baths helped resolve the issue.

Donna

[feresp497]

Hi, I didn`t have retention but i do still burn only when I urinate. It has been a month sinc i have had my hydro. I have a feeling its not going to last too long. I`m susposed to take topamax 50mg 3 times a day when i start hurting again. I mostly have pain in my urethral area, thats why he gave me topamax its for nerve pain. thank you, violet

[LeeAnn]

I don't know if retention is normal or not but it's one of the reasons my hydro was so painful and awful. I think it lasted two or three days but everyone is different and I've since learn that all narcotics increase retention for me. I didn't know that four years ago. But obviously, not all narcotics give people retention.......

500cc's is normal I believe. Normal is 400-600cc's. In any case, my capacity is only around 200cc's as of four years ago and my urologist assured me up and down this was enough to function normally & even sleep through the night if we could ever get the inflammation & pain under control. I honestly didn't believe her and was skeptical until my symptoms improved dramatically over the past three months. Turns out she was right and I can function normally. I don't every single day unfortunately. I would never say I'm in "remission." But today I had a great day. No pain at all and I only peed 7 times all day. So even if you can only hold 500cc's you still have the potential to function normally just like me.....just wanted to give you hope that you're not too damaged by scar tissue to ever feel normal again. :)

[born2swim]

Hey LeeAnn, I guess my biggest complaint is that the urge to go never stops. I may be able to hold it for 2 hours (many times less), but the feeling doesn't go away, ever. I pee, stand up and wish I could get "get the rest out" even though there isn't anything to get out. That is why I am pretty depressed, can't focus, can't stay asleep, etc. I'm hoping that the hydro will help with that (I do feel "different" since then in a good way, but no where near normal). I also had an adhesion they removed, so maybe that was making things worse...

I don't know... I'm just tired of feeling my bladder all the time!

[LeeAnn]

Alyssa, I'm sorry that you haven't gotten any relief yet! For so many years this was my biggest complaint---that I was always *aware* of my bladder 24/7 and that I never forgot b/c it was always burning or it just felt like I had to go really badly. It is an awful feeling. Just keep trying. Something will eventually work for you. How is school going?

[elamar]

That was my was symptom also. I think I remember that you said you had a bad time with medications. I take just 1 ditropan at bedtime now. It has made all the difference. I know how much I was consumed by that awful feeling of always having to go. It just eats you up inside and no amount of distraction works. I used to take 2 or 3 ditropans a day, along with urimar - t. Now I have managed to get it down to once a day. I still have other pains, especially urethral, but it is such a relief to at least be able to relax more and definitely get more hours of sleep at night. I even fall asleep with an ice pack between the legs! I hope maybe its something you can try. None of the other OAB meds worked for me. It did take around a week or 2 at the higher levels of ditropan to get it under some sort of control. The only bad thing is you will feel dried out. I had terrible dry mouth but it was better than what I was going through. Now that I am down to 1 pill a night, that feeling is pretty much gone. I hope you can try this.

[born2swim]

Boy, I wish some med helped. I was put on Detrol LA, Vesicare, Ditropan, and some other med. None of them helped. Two of them actually gave me retention and the drying out side effects were unbearable. It made my eyes so dry that the bottom of my eyelids got bumps (from drying out) and my eyes stung all the time and forget wearing contact lenses. If the OAB meds worked, I would have dealt with the eye trouble, but they didn't do anything. They then did a urodynamics test and said "no wonder those meds didn't help. Your bladder does not overact". Oh well. I'm so glad it has helped you! Maybe I will try the ice pack at bedtime and see if that helps. Heat doesn't help, that's for sure.