Voiding diary..normal or abnormal?

[lttlewun]

My nurse wanted me to start doing a voiding diary for a few days. I wanted to see what you guys think about it so far. Does this look normal or abnormal or somewhere in between??

1/18/10

Woke up and peed at 9:30am and peed 24 oz

Peed 8 oz at 1:30pm

Peed 15 oz at 3:15pm

Peed 12 oz at 5:25pm

Peed 14 oz at 6:30pm

Peed 16 oz at 9pm

Peed 12 oz a 10:45 pm


During the course of the day I had a total of about 94 oz of water.

1/19/10

Woke up at 7am and peed 12oz.

That is is all I have so far. What do you all think?

[statesboro]

I do realize you were told IC and then told it may be something different. OK. I do know you did have some tests that came back good. Anyhow, I don't keep up with how many ounces for me. I do know I could not have gone from 9:30 until 1:30 without peeing. (not while awake) Of course, you did have some shorter periods as well. You peed only 7 times. That is not all too bad. Hey! I have done that in 3 hours or less before.( not as much now) I thought I had read somewhere that if you pee more than 8 times in a day that you must have a problem.(or need to get checked) Ok, then. I guess I will let that be all.

[lttlewun]

I usually don't even go 7 times in one day. I really upped my water intake yest. that is why I went more than usual. Water goes right through me pretty quickly!

[shortstuff]

Littlwun, what are your symptoms? I am similar to you. I really only go between 5-8 times a day (KNOCKING HARD ON WOOD) of course depending on how much I drink and I drink A LOT. Dr. Moldwin told me that it's a fine line deciding what is the cutoff to determine that "x" number of bathroom trips means you have a problem. He said "Should it be 6, 7, 8 and so on?" So unfortunately I'm not helpful in this instance but I guess the point is with this kind of info the doc would need other information to confirm IC.

I have urethral syndrome and have only been diagnosed 1 month so still at the start of treatment. Best wishes to you!

[lttlewun]

Hi Shortstuff ~

Cute screenname. I'm pretty short myself! LOL!

My main symptom is irritation right before I start my urine stream. This has gotten better over the months and doesn't happen every single time I urinate, but does happen more times than not. The irriation/stinging used to linger for hours to days and it was awful. It's a lot better now, but I still get a tender feeling in the area right below my urethra. It feels tender to the touch sometimes. I don't know what that area below the urethra is called. My other symptoms is vaginal soreness/pressure.

My 2nd opinion doc doubts I have IC and thinks I may have PFD b/c I don't have urgency/freq, don't get up at night to pee, have good voiding volumes, don't seem to be affected by food and don't have pelvic pain. They took me off my Elmiron and Elavil and have me trying vaginal Valium for now which does seem to be helping w/the vaginal pressure and some of the urethral irritation. I started feeling like I was having some retention on Elavil though so I'm glad I'm off of it now, but I still do get some retention here and there and I'm not sure what could be causing it.

Isn't urethral syndrome a form of IC? What are your symptoms?

[shortstuff]

Yes, urethral syndrome is like an evil stepsister of IC. My bladder isn't inflamed (supposedly bc just based on regular cysto but it didn't respond to an instillation of analgesics) however my bladder neck (where the bladder meets the urethra) is inflamed and irritable. But of course everything in your bladder rests on that area since it's at the bottom so it doesn't matter that the bladder part feels OK.....I have urethral burning and I feel it exactly at the bladder neck. Sometimes it's before I go to the bathroom and after, sometimes just before, sometimes randomly during the day. I can't even tell when I have to pee because I have a full bladder or if I'm just irritated anymore.

Two of my docs supposed PFD first and I also had some retention. Not HUGE amounts but around 100-150 ml. They said this could definitely be related to the PFD because you aren't relaxing the muscles enough to get everything out of your bladder. A physical therapist at Dr. Moldwin's office suggested I yawn while sitting on the toilet and you would not believe how effective it is. Try it out yourself. If you just start thinking about yawning you know a real one will come and it magically relaxes a lot of the muscles in your pelvic floor. Hope that helps a bit and glad to hear it's probably not IC for you. I really think that with just PFD you can end up feeling great with physical therapy and relaxation. It may take awhile but you'll get there!

[lttlewun]

Thank you for all your great info Shortstuff!

How can you tell it's at the neck of the bladder?

Sometimes I don't know where exactly it's coming from, but there are times when I can feel the "sting" before I even urinate.

What treatments are you on? Do they give patients w/Urethral Syndrome Elmiron too? Can you eat/drink what you want or does this affect your symptoms?

[lttlewun]

One more question Shortstuff ~

Are you having PT done and has it been helping? I'm definitely gonna try the yawning thing!!:)

[shortstuff]

It's funny because if I could put my finger inside my body and point to where the pain is coming I just know it's the bladder neck, but Dr. Moldwin did a regular cystoscopy in his office a few weeks ago and my bladder neck was inflamed. I was amazed at how in tune I am with the pain in my body....

I've been on Flomax for 3 weeks. It is supposed to relax the muscle at the bladder neck so you can get a better stream when you urinate. I don't think that's an issue for me, starting up is but not once I get going. So far it's not worth it because it doesn't help the pain. I do take valium as needed to relax the muscles but I'm also not sure that works because as I mentioned I have real inflammation inside and these medications don't actually stop that.

After this Dr. M wants me to try Prosed and if that doesn't work a cream and a urethral suppository. If those don't work possibly Elmiron. I see him again on March 2.

I did physical therapy from Sept. 08-Feb. 09 since my doctor at that time thought I only had PFD. Sometimes I thought it helped. The therapist said that my muscles were tight and my resting tone on the biofeedback machine showed that too. She would do internal work and release the muscles and I did get some benefit from that. If your insurance will cover it I definitely would try going! If you have any more questions or want to contact me offline let me know and I'll send you my email...my box on here is full and I have to clean it out but haven't yet.

Best wishes and keep me posted!