A couple years ago I had prostate surgery, and 6 months ago a bladder neck contracture formed, reducing my urine flow to almost nothing. I underwent surgery on the contracture, but 3 months later the contracture re-formed, so I underwent surgery on the contracture again. After the last operation I was told to self cath daily, which I have done (I notice that there is about 250 ml of residual urine). The contracture is re-forming again, but so far my daily self cath has kept it from closing up, although it is becoming more difficult to self cath. I noticed that my urine was becoming quite cloudy. I went to the urologist a month ago; his tests found a bladder infection, so Macrobid was prescribed for 10 days, which cleared up the urine. But now, my urine is clouding up again, and I'm pretty sure the infection is back. I have a urology appointment next week, for a cystoscopy. So I suspect the urologist will want to operate again on the bladder neck contracture, and will prescribe antibiotics again for the bladder infection.
But regarding the bladder infection, I noticed the journal article abstract at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19152777 which states that bacterial infections are so common from self cath, that antibiotics should not be used unless there are symptoms to deal with. So if the urologist tries to put me on antibiotics again, I'm thinking of declining unless he can give me a good reason why I should take them. (Is this specific infection likely to cause other problems if untreated?) Comments?
And if the urologist wants to operate on the bladder neck contracture again, I'm considering deferring the operation as long as I can still self cath. I don't want to get caught in an endless cycle of having several operations each year to open up a bladder neck contracture. How can I avoid that?
Bladder Infections after Self Cath
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