Flomax

Helps you pee by relaxing the muscles of your bladder and prostate. What symptoms prompted the rx?

It allows you to pee more easily, but it doesn't make you pee more. In fact, since it's easier to pee you'll be more likely to completely empty your bladder when you do pee. That said, as a radiation guy I still have a prostate, so I'm not fully sure how parallel our situations might be.

Howard3569 said...
To limit the number of times at night that I urinate. It appears this medication would make me pee more.

I took flomax and rapaflo to pee easier prior to getting a Turp, to not get up at night I take Nocdurna.

Howard: I had more issues with Flomax than the Brachy Therapy itself. Please read the instructions and be aware of the side effects. It does everything that has been mentioned earlier and definitely helps the post procedure recovery.

I learned to do a lot of walking to deal with the side effects of Flomax and was very glad to wean myself off. So, necessary but please be aware of side effects and how to deal with them.

I you're getting some benefit from 1 capsule Flomax daily, you can ask your doc if you can try the max dosage, 2 capsules/day. IMO it's worth a try. During my years with BPH, I graduated from 1 to 2 until my BPH won the battle and I had my TURP. But the finasteride + generic Floxam (tamsulosin) worked very well for many years for urine flow. Studies showed that tamsulosin also reduces nighttime urine production in BPH patients with nocturnal polyuria.

Djin

patrickm said...
Not trying to hijack this thread, but I have a semi-related question: After I had my RALP in February and my wife picked up the prescribed medicines from the pharmacy, it included one (phenazopyridine) for "bladder spasm". Up to and including my surgery, no one every mentioned bladder spasms, and I have no idea what they feel like. I assume it was something I might experience during the initial surgery recovery, but to my knowledge my bladder never felt spasmy. Has anyone had them and, if so, what do they feel like? Do they make you pee?

Believe me, you will definitely know what a bladder spasms feels like if you have them! It is usually an intense pain in a place you've never felt it before. After my TURP I had several house of excruciating bladder spasms. I was on a dilaudid drip plus morphine injections. Unfortunately, opioids often have little effect on this type of pain and I basically had to wait it out. I rated my pain on as a 10 out of 10 when asked and a nurse told me afterwards, No, that was an 11. The sheer bliss I felt when the spasms stopped almost made the pain worth it.

Unfortunately children who experience intense bladder spasms can be traumatized by hospitals, mainly because parents and doctors often have to standby almost helpless. It's a question of trying different remedies, which may or may not work.

Phenazopyridine (sold OTC as AZO), is a non-opioid analgesic for the urinary tract. Note that it's a dye and will turn your urine bright orange-red. It also helps with pain from many urinary symptoms. It won't treat the cause, but can take the edge off burning and pain during urination.

Djin

I've had to take Flomax (its generic) for at least 10 years.
I started with one pill daily, but have had to add a pill.

The doc seems to obsess that my bladder never empties.

Other than the inconvenience of that, I haven't noticed any problems.

He added Finasteride 5 months ago, but it didn't help and I stopped that.

I never mentioned Flomax to my eye doc.
I guess I will when I see him next month.

Can someone tell me a downside of not completely emptying my bladder, but I do urinate often; mostly at night.