How to tell when you are retaining urine?

[jen74]

Hi gals.
I was wondering how to tell if you are retaining urine after you pee? I keep a journal and keep track of what I eat and drink. I have went to my urogyne on a couple different occasions and had my PVR checked and those times it was ok, except for one time before I had an instill, I had to pee in a cup for her to check for infection, and when she came to do the instill 10 minutes later she still got out about 3 to 4 ounces. Now I am not sure if my bladder just produced that urine within that 10 minutes or not, or if it was left in there.
I have my period now, and I feel alot worse right now. I always feel like I am not emptying my bladder all the way as I feel like I got to pee 5 minutes after I go and could get a small amount out if I tried. I have catheters here and could check to see if I am retaining, but am so scared to give myself a UTI from the catheter. But this is annoying.
When I feel like I have to pee, I will go and have no trouble starting the stream at all, and it is a normal stream, just that after I get out so much it will completely come to a halt. It does not even get lighter towards the end like where when you normally empty your bladder, towards the end, the stream usually gets lighter and lighter. Is this normal to happen with IC? I mean do any of you pee and then have to go 5 minutes later and can actually get more out?
Also, is it safe for me to cath myself to check how much I am retaining? I have cathed before. When ever I have the instills, I get a reaction and cant pee the stuff out and have had to cath it out( actually my husband did it for me), so he knows how to do it. I am just worried about risk of infection. Also I have my period now. Does that make it more of a risk to get an infection? I mean even if I use the betadine wash first? Also I do have some low dose macrobid antibiotics that my regular doc gave me that are suppose to be used before I ever have sex since I am prone to getting UTIs as it is. Any thoughts on this?
Jen

[tigger_gal]

the best way to find out if you are retaining, is have your doctor do a bladder scan, I retain 70 cc's. When I was in the hospital I had to beg them to cath me, my bladder holds 200 cc's awake. They did a bladder scan and told me I only had like 150 cc's I had a long way to go, my bladder holds 1000cc's. needless to say she got a crash corse in IC that day.

[jen74]

The only thing is, it does not happen all the time, only certain times during the day. Like usually for sure in the middle of the night, or first thing in the morning. And like this afternoon I felt it too after I peed. I had the bladder scan done at my doctors office last week and at that particular time it was ok. That is why I was thinking about doing it myself here with the catheter. I wish owned a bladder scanner, that would be nice!!
Like one day I could be ok, then the next I feel I am retaining. Or sometimes during the day I can pee and feel like I got it all out, then maybe the next time I dont. So there is no way to tell if if will happen when I go to the doctor or not.
Is it normal to retain some urine in the bladder? I remember being told by the urogyne that Dx me that it is normal for everyone to retain some urine, usually no more than 32 to 60 ccs or something. Is this true?
Gosh, I cant believe they would not cath you. How horrible. Do you retain urine alot? Do you self cath at home alot? I also was told that if a person retains urine, they will get infections. I was telling my dad this, and he said that is BS. He said that think about it, we always have urine in our bladders all the time, that our bladders continually slowly fill up normally. I wonder.
Thanks for replying. I appreciate it. I hate this feeling,it is awful.
Jen