Living with uncertainty

[kricht47]

I had my Turp on 4/2/14 and everything was going great until last week. Then suddenly I started to close up. My doctor told me to see him next day, and to self cath if necessary. Self cathing 3 times really opened me up for about 7 hours, but then I started to close again. When I saw my urologist my bladder was pretty full. He did a cystoscopy, told me I had a stricture, but said he could open it up for me with the instrument. The doctor said my stricture looked pretty “beat up” and chastised me for using to much force when I cathed. But on the phone the previous day he had told me to only cath as a last resort, so I was feeling a lot of pressure, and besides, it didn’t feel like I really forced it. So, seemed to imply that possibly I was cured now, but said to see him again in two weeks, and gave me some prepackaged caths to use just in case. So late last Saturday night, I started closing up again, had to self cath about 3 times, and finally decided to go to ER when I felt some resistance the last time. So, I left ER with a foley and instructions to call me doctor for appt. When I called doc he told me that he wanted me to keep cath in until next week to help it heal, and then to take it out myself and see his PA that afternoon to see if I was voiding OK. I’m upset because doctor has not evented mentioned testing to determine size and severity of stricture, other than telling me it was closer to my bladder. When I asked him on the phone about how bad it was, he would only say that this is a process (stricture formation). I’m scared to death because of everything I’ve been reading on line, and how it’s likely that I’ll need urethraplasty, and how everything I’m doing now (cathing and foley insertion) can be making stricture worse. I guess I feel somewhat positive because doctor must have felt it was a minor stricture if he thought he could open it up and cure me using cystoscopy instrument. I’m considering making appt with urethra reconstruction specialist. I would love some feedback.

[Odiez]

My husband had a buccal mucosa urethroplasty done last Friday. He started having problems in 1999 and never had any trauma to his urethra. I blame his stricture on cystoscopy and urethrotomies that he has had over the years (I’ve been doing research and they say that this can happen). He saw a reconstructive urologist (which we are very pleased with) and he told us that when you have a retrograde urethrogram, the stricture can be larger than what it is on it.

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