Brachytherapy 5 days post op catheter problems? will i be ok?

[taxbuster1040]

Hello all! I am a 56 year old male. I had previously lurked through these forums to make a decision about my prostate cancer. I was diagnosed with very early stage microscopic prostate cancer. I decided to have Brachytherapy, which was done July 31. The Doctors said that all went well, with regard to the seeds and surgery. That is good news. After surgery, there was a little too much blood coming out, so the Dr put in a bigger " 28 size" catheter, and rigged up the balloon in the catheter to apply pressure to to prostate, so the bleeding would ease a bit. He wasnt exactly sure where the bleeding was coming from, (like the eurethura) but thought this was the thing to do. PUtting in the huge size catheter was an unbearable pain. Ok. Bleeding eased, and we planned on removing that catheter 2 days later. Ahh, felt good. Now in order to go home from the hospital i had to make 300 cc's of urine on my own, and each batch had to be less red than the previous batch. Well, each batch was less red, but a new problem arose. Enough urine wasnt coming out, and over the course of the next hour and a half, i was hugging the urine pail to my genitalia, experiencing the most intense pain of my life every 3 or 4 minutes as i experienced what the nurse called bad bladder spasms. Folks, this was tramatizing. Morphine did nothing. They finally decided to put an 18 size catheter back in to drain the 700cc's that was stuck in my bladder. We waited another hour... All was well with the catheter in ,and i wanted to go home without a catheter. But i was not to be. They pulled the catheter out, and within 10 minutes the painfull unbearable spasms started again.
MY urine now has no clots at all and looks almost pure yellow. I dont experience these spasms with the catheter in.
I am scheduled to go back to the Doc on monday after 4 days of being home. The doctors nurse has said that this is very rare, and he hasnt seen very much of this particular problem. I am frightened that the same thing is going to happen and i will be stuck with a catheter for a long long time. This is not what i expected. The general amount of time for catheters after Brachytherapy was supposed to be a day or 2. NOt 2 weeks like a prostatectomy.
My questions. Have any of you had unbearable bladder spasms, and after a week post op, then had the catheter pulled out, and all was ok? Please say yes? SEcondly, if you have had the painful spasms and urine retention post op, how long did it last post op, and was there specific medication that seemed to Cure the problem? Or will i be in a catheter forever? I can function like this, and this smaller catheter is tolerable, but not for months and months.... Please help, i am upset at all this...... Thanks

[Specialdee]

I had RRP four years ago and six weeks afterwards, after overcoming incontinence to a fair degree, had my urethra almost plugged by scar tissue. My uro ran one of his slender (not slender enough!!) rods up into my bladder which moved the scar tissue, and the excess urine poured out. No problems for about another six weeks, and had the same problem, same procedure, same results. Then, no problems again for another six weeks, then same problem, same procedure, and similar results. On that occasion, the "slender" rod he used to move the scar tissue irritated my urethra to the point where it totally stopped up. I could not urinate, and the pain was awful. Around midnight, I called my uro (whose name was actually in the phone book!) and he had me go to the emergency room for insertion of a catheter. While waiting for help in the ER, I was practically dancing with pain and anguish. The catheter was removed the next day without further incident, and fortunately, that was the last occasion where scar tissue was a problem. By the way, I can certainly identify with your bladder problems and the pain they cause. Bladder spasms sure hurt! Don't give up hope! Your situation will improve, but it's certainly frustrating to be in the middle of a situation where it seems there's no improvement on the horizon. You will get better!!!

[my2cents2]

I had brachytherapy last September. Like you, it was very early stage cancer. In my case the spinal lasted 6 hours instead of the typical 2 hours. I never did discover why, but suspect the anesthesiologist screwed up the quantity. In any case that caused lots of clotting and I could not urinate. I opted for a suprapubic catheter, figuring that I could then determine when I could urinate on my own (I could plug off the suprapubic and try the normal way). I found that the catheter irritated my bladder and caused a lot of urine to be produced. I think that when the bladder is irritated, it calls for more urine from the body tissues. Later I discovered that one of the lobes of the prostate had swelled in one preferential direction, impinging on the bladder wall which then covered the bladder sphincter. Hence, the reason for my urination problems. Anyway, I put up with the suprapubic for almost 3 months and then had it removed and went to self catheterization. At first I was appalled at the thought of self catheterizing but, in hindsight, wished I had gone to that earlier. After a few times, it was not really all that bad. Once the suprapubic was removed, the bladder settled down and I had to self cath less and less. Six months ago I ceased self catheterizing and am now normal. In fact I think I can urinate better now than before the seeds (except for the middle of the night).

So, you will definitely recover from this. By the way, when I went to self cathing they tried to give me a 16 FR catheter and I refused it, asking for a 14 FR. Why on earth they would put in a 28 FR is totally beyond my comprehension. It's no wonder you have all the problems. This also speaks to the out patient mentality that permeates medicine these days. I think that if I had stayed in the hospital one day (I went home right after the spinal abated) they could have irrigated my bladder an extra 24 hours and maybe I wouldn't have had such severe problems. What is interesting is that the cancer doesn't seem to be a problem. If you read much on this board you will find that the major problems, no matter what the treatment, are the side effects. We are all different and the docs cannot predict who will experience what and for how long. Good luck, you will be fine.

[taxbuster1040]

Yesterday they removed the catheter. What a relief! I hate them things. It seemed that for the first few hours, I was urinating at will, with some burning as long as about an hour apart. As the day wore on though, it seems that I must get to a toilet about every 30 minutes. This made it impossible to sleep last night. Do any of you have any idea what I should expect from here on? I am thinking of calling my doctor to give me some kind of medicine to calm the overactive bladder. Does anyone else have Any Recomendations?

[jackcc]

They should have put you on Flomax.