Hi!
I'm trying to find anyone with similar problems to what my son is experiencing. He is almost 31 years old, and had his 3rd back surgery in Nov.
His 1st surgery was for an L1S5 rupture. From that scar tissue developed and pinched a nerve controlling the bladder. He then had another surgery to excise scar tissue. He now has a bladder that doesn't fully empty, but for year it was mostly controlled by medication.
Last year he had his 3rd surgery for the disk right above the original. Since the surgery he has had a constant feeling of having to pee. He says it feels like there's a catheter in place.
I contacted his urologists office; they would do nothing until his appointment this past Jan. He had to wait 2 months to be seen!! He saw his primary doctor, who gave him stronger pain pills, cause that's the only thing that helped mask the feeling.
Last week his urologist gave him antibiotics, hoping the problem is prostatitis, which he's had before. That has done nothing.
Has ANYBODY gone through this before, and if so WHAT DID YOU DO? He is worried about getting hooked on pain meds, and has been taking too many at one time to relieve the feeling. His primary doc also gave him valium hoping that it would relax muscles and give some relief.
I am worried and scared to death for him. I want to take him to another urologist if he'll allow it. He is now very depressed (past history of depression), and I broached mental health help, but he's against it because of his past treatment failures.
Anyone who has any advice, I'm open to anything at this point.
If you've ever had a bad UTI, you will be able to sympathize with him.

He also has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, asthma, a sleep phase disorder, and social phobias, and a total lack of self esteem. He is handsome, artistically talented and super intelligent.
Darlene

Hi Darlene and welcome to the board,

Just a thought, but have you talked to his surgeon lately about this? If not, maybe you should make an appt. and have him checked out. Something new might be going on, if nothing else is working.

Take care and I hope he can get some answers and help soon.

Bernie

Hello , I'm so sorry for your son ,I'm going to suggest something to you for him , I also had the feeling of not finishing when I pee , that was because of my percocets I was on. Just a thought. I would love to say that was his problem. I also had 3 surgeries on my lumbar L4-L5 and found that the drugs done this to me ?
Hope I helped somehow ? :)

Hi,
Do you know if he has jumpy reflexes when they check them? Hyperreflexia (also known as autonomic dysrefexia) could potentially be causing the bladder problems you speak of which is usually caused by some sort of spinal cord problem (usually) at the T5 level and the levels above it (C-spine - neck), does he have any upper back pain or pains in his neck at all? Has he by chance had an MRI on the neck before? Let me know more about your son and perhaps we can talk more on this.

Help for people with Tourettes is very minimal and I feel there is a great need for a protcol - as research seems to be all over the place and any info on it prior to 1998? or 1995 is considered outdated. Take Care and many blessings :)

I have herniated disks in my neck and am petrified to have a diskogram done. have you every had one. also, some nights when i'm sitting my body parts, leg, arm, etc. will twitch. it's only when i'm relaxing. do you know what that could be/ i never mentioned it to the doctro w/regard to the pain i get in my neck, shoulder, arm, etc. do you think it is important. thanks for your help.

Sounds like you could be having muscle spasms that could be potientally caused by the herniations. It would probably be worth mentioning to the doc. Sometimes they can give you msucle relaxers to help with the situation if they are very troublesome and/or painful.

Hi,

I think if it's bothersome to you and your wondering, you should tell your doctor. It could be muscle spasms like pearl said, or something else could be going on. Worth mentioning to your dr. Also, just so you know, :) there is a spinal cord disorder board regarding cervical issues, and you may get some better responses there. Take care and God Bless

I edited my previous post section regarding Tourette, because after look at the article again, I found that what it was actually saying is that the head jerking that can be a tic manifestation from Tourette can cause myelpopathy, which is basicly opposite of what I previously had thought, so my appology on the misinformation.

But something that you may want to look into for your son however is B12 deficency... it can cause many neuro problems.