Help With Frequent Urination

Over a year out from radiation and major problem is lack of sleep due to getting up 2-3 times a night to pee.  I am really worn out the next day and it is becoming a major factor in my life - the lack of energy to do anything.  My RadOnco precscribed Detrol a while back, but after six months it still had no effect.  Will be seeing him again soon for follow-up.   Has anybody had any luck with prescription drugs that:

(a) take away the urge to pee, allowing for an uninterrupted night of sleep

(b) a sleep med that will let you sleep all night, but not let your bladder empty while you sleep

Thanks for any suggestions.  Squid.

 

Squid

Here's an alternative theory.  It may or may not have merit, but it may be something you should consider.

Do you wake up because you have to pee, or do you head for the head because you wake up?

As a sleep apnea sufferer, I can tell you that before I had my sleep study and started using my CPAP machine, I would wake up quite a few times during the night, and every time I woke up, I naturally had to head for the bathroom to take a leak.  I wasn't waking up to pee...I was just waking up, and when we wake up after a couple of hours of sleep, it's natural to feel the urge to pee.

Now that the CPAP machine allows me to sleep well, and to reach the deep stages of sleep where the urge to urinate is put on hold, I get up once, or maybe not at all during the night.  And it was that way even prior to surgery, when I had a much-enlarged prostate and a constant urge to pee during the daytime.

So, the alternate possibility is that you might have a sleep disorder that causes  you to sleep lightly, so that you wake up frequently and then feel the need to pee.  Ask your wife.  Do you snore heavily?  Do you hold your breath during sleep?  Do you sometimes wake up gasping for air. 

I just offer this as another possibility, and I suspect other diagnosed sleep apnea sufferers might agree that it's something to think about.

Also, how's your blood sugar, my R. N. wife asks.

 

I stop drinking at 8pm and pee at 10pm when i go to be. I experience the dreams about peeing and the 12 and 2 wake up, the third wake up is usually as late as 6.30 and often I sleep through.
I have only had one leak at night (I'd estimate it was abiout an egg cup full)
I used to need to ghet up and pee before surgery though too, so I have sort of got used to it. I go back to sleep much more easily and quickly now though. Also I hacve made myself stop worrying about it. I think I have also somehow taught myself not to worry abouyt anything if I am awake at night, which is a great help. Not sure how it did it, but if I find I am lying awake I try and create the story for a book I'd like to write. I guess it must be like a sort of yoga chanting that keeps other thoughts out of my head.
Not turning on lights is important when getting up at night so as to stop the brain going into wake-up mode.

I assume the answer actually lies in getting the kidneys to slow down their activity. So maybe a renal doc would know what to do or what meds might help.

Alf

I never had a problem with noctural peeing (once per night) until I was about halfway thru radiation. I then was up every 2 hours even with limiting my water intact all day and stopping at 6.

Dr put me on Flowmax and it has helped. I also been trying to hold my peeing rather than just running for the bathroom during the day. Not sure if that will help, but figured it was worth a try.

Thanks all. As Michael says, this problem of no sleep can affect every aspect of your life. I'll see what the doc comes up with next visit. I'm not holding my breath. On the plus side, at least I don't have incontinence. That would make it even worse. Of course if I peed into a diaper at night, at least I might not have to get up so many times!!! Squid.

Another thing that I thought of was, after having my seeds, I felt the need to urinate frequently, but found that if I took 2 acetaminophen every four hours it helped to eliminate that feeling. It might be worth a shot.

One tip that I will pass on, that won't stop the frequency, but may allow you more sleep is to not turn the bathroom light on. I read in a magazine, that light has the affect of bringing you into a more awakened state. There may be enough street light shining through the window to make out the location of the toilet (you may want to sit down) or you could also use a low watt child's night light. Since I've started this, I tend to fall right back to sleep after getting up.