Need some information about an overactive bladder which became a problem for me just recently. At first, it was mostly at night where i got up around 4 times to use the bathroom. Now, its during the day as well as night which has increased to 5 and 6 times. I know there are several medications to treat this condition, but I understand from some friends not many work well. If anyone has any information or is willing to share their experiences, i would greatly appreciate it. And, among the medications, are there any that are safe for those with CKD?
I plan on seeing my primary doctor soon, but i thought i would ask the group to share any thoughts they may have. thanks in advance for taking the time to reply. Have a great weekend everyone.
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drmind
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Re nocturia, I presume youve tried the obvious/recommended things like no drinks a couple of hours before bed? 5-6 times/dy is fairly normal as I recall and your 24h number is only just over the ideal healthpartners.com/blog/fre...
Counter-intuituvely drinking water may help but I assume youre doing that with CKD anyhow?
thanks so much for your reply. I also appreciated reading the website you listed. I may well have a combination of those disorders and now can discuss the situation in more meaningful terms once i get to see my primary doctor. I was glad to hear that you were able to stabilize your hearh issues by becoming more proactive.
Some of us have to take medicines for various conditions, so naturopathic may not be the answer and could cause more problems. . I suggest before stopping your meds and taking other medicines contact your Doctors who prescribed them.
Thanks, orangecity, of course i will check with my doctors. Actually, Im really not into supplements. Also, since all my labs are stabilized, i woukd be reluctant to change anything. Hope you're doing well.
Just to be clear, I wasnt recommending any supplements in your case. But I admit that I have included some within a comprehensive, naturopathic protocol for overcoming (personal) damage caused by medication.
Thanks but maybe your response was directed to drmind, not me, as I have no meds to stop and certainly dont plan to take any? In my personal experience, a prescription drug caused serious problems despite stopping it when the problems arose. A naturopathic approach has largely corrected the damage caused and not caused others.
If meds work for you, that is good as long as they dont cause other problems, as many drugs have been shown to do.
I assumed you were proactive because of your disdain for certain drugs. Everyone has a right to chose what meds they take or dont take and only a few exercise that right. You obviously made a good choice for yourself.
It is possible you have Interstitial Cysitis, I have stage 4 kidney failure and just to add to my issues I found out that I have that as well. I have to pee at least a few times a night and it is very painful if I don't go right away. I also go a lot during the day and a long car ride, forget it. It seems I'm always looking for a bathroom. Ask your doctor if it's possible you have early stages of it. Good luck!
wow, thanks for sharing this information. I dont have any pain. I just wake up with an urge to go. I usually can go right back to sleep, but as i noted in my original post, the frequency greatly increased recently and I wondered why. Lately, I did start taking pravastatin and drinking camomiele tea and thought it coukd be one of these. Im on a fishing expedition to see if anyone else shared any similar experiences.
It might be something you want to bring to the doctor. I too suffer from peeing at least two if not three times a night. Some nights I can make it for four hours and rarely, five. A bad night is every two hours. I find the following things make a difference.
One, eating sugar or high carbs. We pee out sugar and it makes us do it more frequently, which is a good thing actually. Two, I also drink a LOT of water during the day. It is what we are supposed to do a late stage. If I stop before 6pm, I am good but sometimes I don't and I pee. I stop eating also by 6pm if not earlier.
There are other considerations, such as other diseases. High Blood pressure and medications for it. Some medications will make you pee more often so have the doctor review it.
you got that right about having to urinate. Im gkad i do. I do drink late in the day to catch up on the quantity i need; however, this behavior only caused me to get io to go about 3 to 4 times. A shift to 5, 6, 7, 8 times a night happened recently and was trying to figure out why.
Your suggestion about sugar made me take note.😜 i do love my desserts! Im going to monitor what i do for late night snacks.
Thanks. I love this forum because you get a wealth of experiences and lots of great support.
So very sorry you're facing this situation. This also happened to my hubby as he got older and his kidneys declined. Then, while on dialysis, his urinary issues led to several uti's (which, in turn, led to c-dif) and antibiotics were the treatment of choice. However, the urinary problems resurfaced shortly after his transplant with even more burning and pee breaks. After lots of tests, he was told that it was diabetes related, that his infections and fungal situation were low-level, and that he should simply self-cath himself. End of story. My hubby rejected self-cathing after trying it. We were so discouraged - we couldn't get over the fact that hubby had been absolutely fine until the latter stages of CKD - only a couple of years earlier. We concluded that struggling kidneys stresses the immune system - impacting urine quality, the bladder environment, and so on. And, then, if anyone is on immunosuppressants, that also doesn't help matters. So we tried probiotics (probiotics were in his treatment plan for his c-dif ) to give his abused body a boost and maybe turn matters around. Thankfully, this worked. My hubby's multiple trips to the bathroom quit, the burning went away - he only goes to the bathroom only once or twice a night now, no longer runs to the bathroom in restaurants, etc. This said, I'd like to caution anyone with a transplant to make sure you get clearance from your transplant center. For those without a transplant, suggest you also notify your nephrologist or primary doctor. We found our probiotics on Amazon (21st Century Cranberry Plus Probiotic Tablets), but there are many types. For those at the end of their rope, you may want to try it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Thank you for sharing> I have a problem with uti and cliff, as a result of medication I was prescribed that caused the c diff. I am going to try the probiotic . The antibotic
I also have overactive bladder and if I had to list all my many medical conditions that I'd like to disappear, this would be top of the list. It's uncomfortable and life changing. While you can say "my arthritis is painful can we stop and walk around", saying "I just wet my pants can we stop so I can change" is not something anyone wants to say or hear. The only reason why I can go on long trips is because we pull a camper behind us. I tell hubby, gotta go NOW, and he pulls to the side of the road. Even if I don't make it, it's easy to change clothing in the camper. My husband is wonderful.
There are a lot of mechanical things you can do before you see the doctor. Set an alarm and go to the bathroom every 1.5 or 2 hours. If you are working and have meetings, go to the bathroom before, even if you just went. The same for the drive home. Use an incontinence pad or disposable diaper. I have found for my body shape, the diaper doesn't work well. Since I tend to have mostly unalerted full bladder releases, the incontinence pads are not enough but do help keep the urine out of the carpet. I've tried every type out there and the super absorbent (7 drops) Always pads are the most absorbent and most comfortable to wear. Always have extra undies/clothing in case you need to change. I've had OAB for about 10 years and it's really only reached the unbearable range the last year.
Prescription medications: There are several out there and I have been on two of them since my diagnosis with ckd and the docs have said it is fine. When I was diagnosed with ckd I was on the generic for Vesicare. Vesicare (and generic) worked wonderful for a couple of years and then it didn't help. At that time, my primary care doc referred me to a Urogynocologist who did a physical exam to make sure there is nothing that is out of place (like a prolasped bladder) and then a test to make sure I can eliminate all my urine when I urinate. Since I also started having frequent UTIs this year, she also did an u/s to see if all the internal parts were working. She put me on a one month trial of Gemtesa, which worked wonderfully for the first month. Now at the end of the 2nd month, it's not working. I go back in a couple of weeks and hope she has some wonderful ideas. She also put me on a daily antibiotic to prevent UTIs and recommended two supplements to help prevent UTIs.
Do you have an easy way to contact your doctors? I have various online patient charts that have the ability to message the doctor. The nurses screen these out and answer what they can, the rest they talk to the doctor and relay the answer. If you have that ability, I would message both your primary care and nephrologist and ask for suggestions to help with OAB. You can bet this is one of the top questions I will be asking my nephrologist at my first appointment this week.
Topaz: I just got finished reading about OAB on the Mayo Clinic site. There appears to be several treatment options that you might be interested in. Please go to their site and read about these before your doctor's visit. Hope you can eventually find a solution. Best always.
Drmind, I think that the only thing that hasn't been tried is nerve stimulation and biofeedback. I'll talk to the doc about those.
The only cause that has been found is that I am overweight. If that's the case, I'm going to fix it. I was on Keto when I was diagnosed with ckd and had to go low protein. I lost 80 pounds on that and have gained back about 8 pounds. I have started the very long process to get weight loss surgery. Hopefully that will help with the OAB.
Wow, you've been through a lot and seen to have dealt with this OAB as best you can. I truly appreciate all the information that you shared. My situation is not as intense as yours and I hope I can stop the recent progression before it gets out of hand. I intent to see my primary and kidney doctor soon and will certainly take this up with them. Someone suggested a trial of Myrbetriq-extended release [25 and 50 mg], but first I want to discuss this with my medical team. Please let us know how it goes with the upcoming doctor's visit. Have you looked at possible food items that may trigger some episodes? I haven't found any, but there have been suggestions and sugar and/or spicey foods trigger some people. Good luck in finding a solution and please let us hear from you again.
Thanks so much for your reply. My BP is stabilized in normal range; potassium is right in the middle of the normal range. in fact, all my labs are in the normal range. My egfr is 33 up from 27 at the last lab a few months ago. The current labs were taken on 9/1/22. I have been giving a sample of Myrbetrig [25 mg] and its working well. Unfortunately, there is no generic and it costs around $500 a month. Will look into whether or not my insurance will cover it. Once again, thanks for the information that you shared.
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