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Posted 4/15/2016 2:57 AM (GMT 0)
Wondering if anyone has any experience with bladder spasms?.. my father is is g9. 12 of 12 pins positive in biopsy. His first symptoms were having issues emptying. Urologist made decision to wait on turp until after radiation. He started hormone injections approx 10 weeks ago and radiation 5 weeks ago. Recently urinating got extremely difficult a reached the point where during certain times could not urinate at all. Because of this decision was made to have a indwelling catheter put in. Catheter went in without issue. about 30 minutes after it was put in the first bladder spasms started. Within two days they got so bad we ended up in the emergency room. Some meds were prescribed. Meds didn't help few days later, back into into emergency room with extreme spasms. Next day in in urologist, made some adjustments which ultimately didn't help. Decision was made to remove indwelling cath today and just try self cathing when necessary. After cath was removed there was a few hours of relief, but soon extremely terrible spasms started coming every few minutes. Ambulance ride back into the emergency room, where we sit now. Nobody seems to have any idea what to do. The spasms are unbelievably painful painful debilitating. Does anyone out there have any experience with this? Any ideas at all on what to do?
Posted 4/15/2016 4:32 AM (GMT 0)
Yes. I have been dealing with bladder spasms for nearly 8 years. Just home from surgery ,will try to give you a better answer tomorrow. I feel for him, I know how painful they can be.
Posted 4/15/2016 6:28 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks a bunch. Any feedback is very much appreciated
Posted 4/15/2016 9:04 AM (GMT 0)
Needinfo2, I sympathise with your father, I know just how painful bladder spasms can be.

I have a suprapubic catheter which is generally ok, but I do experience major spasms when the catheter is changed - every 4 weeks.

They are very painful, but for me, fairly shortlived, just as the old catheter is removed and the new one inserted. For the rest of the month, I generally don't have too much trouble, but occasionally the positioning of the catheter can cause discomfort. I have now learned how to adjust it to relieve that discomfort.

Clearly your father has a different issue if he is experiencing spasms even with no urethral catheter. I can't explain that.

The medications I have to relieve spasms are Ditropan, commonly known as Oxybutinin and Vesicare (Solifenacin Succinate). Oxybutinin has some unpleasant side effects but Vesicare doesn't appear to have any - at least not for me. However here in Australia, Vesicare is very expensive and not Govt subsidised whereas Oxybutinin is. I only need to take anything on the days of a catheter change when I know the spasms will happen.

I am not sure what to advise given that the spasms are not being caused by a catheter, but Medication such as Vesicare would seem the most likely solution.

I do hope he can soon get some relief.

Chas
Posted 4/15/2016 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
There are 6 or more different meds for bladder spasms. One guy in my group likes Myrbetriq, another likes Vesicare (he takes the 10 mg dose), and another does fine with Oxybutynin. There are several more. His Uro may have samples he can try until he finds that med and the dose that works for him. Another possibility is botox.

- Allen
Posted 4/18/2016 4:11 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks all for the comments... does anyone have a guess on what may be causing this? His urologist seems to be stumped as well. Find it very odd that clearly the cath started the spasms (they started 30 mins after cath went in) but when we finally removed the cath the persisted just as bad. Haven't found a doctor yet that has any idea what is going on with him. He is in a bad spot, cath in or cath out, extreme spasms that aren't slowing down with any of the meds they have tried. It's been two weeks, the extreme pain is taking a toll on him...
Posted 4/18/2016 8:27 AM (GMT 0)
This is very mysterious.

With a catheter it is easy to understand. The tip of the catheter extends about an inch beyond the end of the balloon used to hold the catheter in place. If that tip touches the wall of the bladder then a spsm will happen, but the design is intended to prevent that happening. If the soft balloon is held against the wall of the bladder (which is very sensitive to sharp touches) then the tip cannot touch the wall, so spasms are avoided.

However with no catheter it is is clearly not the issue, unless there is some foreign body floating around inside the bladder, but hard to see where that would come from.

Surely the Uro could perform a cystoscopy to have a look inside the bladder to see what is going on?

Chas
Posted 4/19/2016 4:47 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Chas,
He was actually back in there today with more spasms. They decided to do the cysto. Results came back all clear, uros words were 'bladder looks perfect inside'. Still no answers...
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