I had a J-pouch put in on 1998, in 2004 I had another surgery to cut loose internal scar tissue wrapped around my Small intestines. In 2010 I had another surgery to have scar tissue removed from my small intestine at the takedown from my temporary colostomy . In 2012 my urologist has discovered my Bladder is NOT completely empting. Since then I have had problems urinating. My Urologist did a cystoscope of my bladder and found nothing but a small dark spot. and said I had BPH = enlarged prostrate , not extreme.Now after Blood pressure meds were changed a year ago and my bladder not empting I have a uncontrollable Bladder , leakage very extreme sometime and minor sometimes. Im guessing the scar tissue may be wrapped , growing to my bladder, I have started having Bladder infections the last 6 months , every 6 to 8 weeks. My Kidney doctor has checked my Kidney functions for the last 5 years and Kidneys functions are excellent. Does any other J-Pouchers>> men have this problem . I am 57 now. Please help
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I wouldn't guess this has much to do with scar tissue or your J-pouch. It just sounds like an enlarged (and enlarging) prostate, very common in men as they age. There are both medical and surgical treatments, and as you've noticed some medications can make it worse. Have you seen a urologist?
Yes Scott my Urologist is a$$$ing around . My Next appointment is Feb 18th , too far out for me, In the mean time I go thru a 32 pack of depends in 6 or 7 days. Funny thing when I relax or lay down leakage is really bad and their is no warning
Thank you for posting this. I am being treated for the 5th UTI since my surgery diverting my j-pouch to a permanent ileostomy 5 months ago. During that surgery my surgeon spent 3 hours lysing my scars and adhesions too. She had to peel my intestines from the mesh from my incisional hernia surgery 4.5 years ago. My intestines were a mess of scars/ashesions similar to yours. I got the first UTI along with pneumonia while in the hospital. Thankfully the pneumonia wasn't serious.
I wonder if our recent adhesion /scarring surgeries have anything have with our urinary tract infections?
I had a CTscan two months after this surgery and spent a day in the hospital. There was fluid of some sort of fluid resting on my bladder. Thank God it wasn't an abscess or fistula. The Radiologist sucked it out with a long needle while I was under anesthia. It was fluid that had gathered from my surgery and would have eventually been absorbed.
My PCP then referred me to an urologist. They did was an ultrasound of my bladder and said there wasn't a problem. So it looks like there isn't a physical problem. I thought that was a waste of time as I got the "come back when you have an UTI".
That was 2 UTI'S ago. Silly me for thinking it would be okay to spend a few months 1300 miles away from home this winter So now I am dealing with UrgentCare and an ER. On top of awful pain it might be that I have c.diff again. That is really perplexing so I'm waiting for the cultures to see. Plus it's difficult to follow up with my PCP as he is 1300 miles away....
thanks for sharing Marie, My Bladder does not empty out very well during the day, But I know something is going on with all of the UTI s I have had every 6 weeks
One way of dealing with this is to learn how to catheterize yourself, to fully empty your bladder. This is far from a perfect solution, but some consider it better than their alternatives. Do you know if any of your meds may be making this worse?
Scott I think my new bp med Norvasc 5 mg has made it worse
Norvasc doesn't list urinary retention as a side effect, but it could be doing it to you (or the timing may be a coincidence). You could call your doctor to ask if you can try a different medicine, at least as an experiment. It's pretty miserable when you can't empty your bladder properly, but it's quite common. Getting older isn't for sissies. Good luck!