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Post by peilynne on Sept 1, 2008 13:39:22 GMT -6
Okay, before I start I just want to let everyone know I am of very clear mind as I write this! Just after my surgery I had a bag to drain the urine, then my nurses started doing ics. I had a lot of time on my hands mostly because I was hardly sleeping at all at night as I was having difficulty adapting to my new body and all the changes in my life. So, I really don't know to this day how I even thought of these things, but I did. This is how I retrained my bladder, with support from my very caring nursing staff.
First, I stopped the ics and drank a lot of water. I could barely feel the sensation, or urge to pee. So, I needed triggers. I had a sink by my bed, and a fan, so I would get the nurses, or my hubby, to run the water and turn the fan on me. If I still had difficulty I would flip through the tv screens until I found a water image. At first, it would take a long time, but eventually my bladder got stronger.
I know it was me that saved my bladder, otherwise I would have been sent home doing ics. At my spinal cord rehab I was THE only patient who could pee on their own, out of thirty two patients on my floor. I told two other girls I met there who had just been released from hospital to rehab, and who could feel the sensation to pee, but were doing ics, and they tried "my method" and it worked for them.
I know it all sounds a little crazy, but it worked for me and others and I'm very grateful I was determined to save what I could.
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Post by throeback on Sept 1, 2008 17:58:21 GMT -6
WOW!!!!! I mean....TOTAL WOW!!!!! you may have without knowing helped to develop methods that PT professionals can use as a guidelines to help save a great many spinal patients the use of their bladder function. I applaud your stick-to-it-ness. You should share your your incredible finding with your active pt person. Who knows you may have invented/introduced the newest standard for bladder rehab. I wish you well. I also insist you keep up the great work. In the end you will win in your life journey.
Sweet,
................Throeback...................
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Post by peilynne on Sept 1, 2008 18:33:05 GMT -6
Yes, unfortunately, when you are in the hospital, all the nurses really worry about is the voiding part, it needs to be done. It is the patient who needs to take control of their situation and a lot of times they are not coherent, well enough or just too distraught to do so. In my case, I was quite alert. I was in neuro unit for 44 days, as I had surgery to remove tumor,c3-t2, as well as csf leak three weeks later, another surgery. How I emerged from neuro intensive unit with my bladder functioning is amazing. Please, if you have not had your surgery yet, and they start doing ics, at least try what I did. Hopefully the nursing staff/pts will work with you.
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Post by Linda51 on Sept 2, 2008 8:53:19 GMT -6
This is not new to me. Anytime I feel the urge to go but it doesn't want to flow turning on the water faucet usually will work. When I was at Shand's Hospital in 1994 one of my room mates would ask her mother in law to go to the bathroom to pee then that would cause her to be able to do it. She did not have a tumor or SCI. So that remedy has been around for a long time for anyone regardless of the situation.
Now if anyone can fixed the other problem that would be even better and that is when you got to go and I mean right then and oops you don't make it.
~Linda
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Post by shannan on Sept 2, 2008 12:38:36 GMT -6
I wish, it's been over a year and I'm still working at it but I require ics. However, I am quite surprised to hear how complacent the care appears to be regarding the bladder. My expereince was completely different, on the neuro ward I was on the nursing staff and I tried several techniques to void and to strengthen my bladder. We actually tried the running water, both in the sink and when that didn't work the shower, then we tried drizzling warm water over the peri area to encourage me to go, to no avail. Funny thing is I have feeling, can tell when I have to go, but cannot fully empty my bladder yet, but I keep working at it.
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Post by peilynne on Sept 2, 2008 13:40:10 GMT -6
Shannon, keep working at it, something else I have to do frequently, usually at bedtime, is take 20-30 really deep breaths, that helps. Good luck and keep trying!!!!!!!!!
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Post by shannan on Sept 2, 2008 18:07:16 GMT -6
I won't ever give up on any of this.
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Post by WhiteAngel on Sept 2, 2008 19:32:08 GMT -6
hi peilynne,
wow that sounds pretty amazing...well done...so what if you have the opposite problem?...I know when to pee and have only minutes or in some case's seconds to get to the bathroom...i usally do what they call time voiding, even if I don't feel I need to go, I'll go....always try the same time every day to avoid an accident and watch my intake of fluid...sometimes when I can't go, my trick is to put some pressure on my bladder wall, that will trigger me to go, even if it's a bit...
I'm interested to know if anyone else might have this problem? 
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Post by peilynne on Sept 2, 2008 21:19:54 GMT -6
I take a drug called detrol, it really decreases the urgency. It made a huge difference in my quality of life. Talk to your urologist. I just take 1 a day, in the morning.
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Post by chickiet on Sept 12, 2008 11:37:46 GMT -6
I have alarms set in my cell phone (which is on and with me at all times) - they are set at various times throughout the day to remind me to get up and "try" to go. I have chosen a dedicated ring that only plays for that reminder, so I don't think I've got a phone call coming in... The alarms help with the last minute/second urgency, at least for me, and I think they also put some type of regimen of trying periodically. (I also have alarms set for my meds so I keep on cycle wiht them.)
Chris
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