Post by DJ on Sept 28, 2013 14:32:17 GMT -8
I've noticed that a lot of members take Oxybutynin/Ditropan due to bladder spasms. I also take it every morning because of my severe bladder spasms. My bladder spasms whenever it gets "full" which for me is about 350-400ml which is really not that much. Due to the bladder capacity being so little, I need to urinate more frequently and because I've got no control of my bladder, it spasms and empties/leaks on its own. This is also why I wear a condom catheter because if I didn't, I'd have to catheterize every 2-3 hours which is impossible for me to do at the moment.
When my bladder spasms, I get autonomic dysreflexia, and the longer it spasms without emptying, the more dysreflexic I get. This is the main reason why I take ditropan; to reduce the dysreflexia. The ditropan also helps with preventing pressure from the spasms pushing urine back up into my kidneys but I really think I'm not on enough ditropan to prevent it completely. The only way to prevent that would be by having no spasms at all and at the moment, I'm far from that.
Whenever I go to my urologist for the urodynamics testing, it shows that I have an extremely high bladder pressure when it's spasming. This also significantly spikes my heart rate up due to the autonomic dysreflexia as I've mentioned before.
Urinary tract infections only make this worse because whenever I have a UTI, my bladder spasms are more frequent and they last longer. There's been a couple of times when my bladder would spasm and not release the urine which got me into a critical dysreflexic state. It was so bad I almost had to go to the hospital because my heart was beating so fast I could have had a stroke but thankfully my parents were around to quickly catheterize me and relieve my bladder. Whenever I do intermittent catheterizations I never get more than 250ml but this one time I got 850ml. The dysreflexic state I was in was so bad I almost cried! My "normal" blood pressure post SCI is 70/50 but at really bad times like I've mentioned, the dysreflexia bring my heart rate up to about 180/130!
Anyways, that's just some info on how my bladder works and affects me and as long as I don't get a stroke or damage my kidneys, I can live with these lovely additions that come with a spinal cord injury. I'll continue to take my ditropan and if I ever have to, will increase my dosage without hesitation (and for the most part I'm stubborn with taking meds).
If you have similar issues or have any questions, feel free to discuss about it below!