cystoscopy or not?

[elliel]

I'm in the very early stages of symptoms, just 4 weeks and currently still on antibiotics (which are making little difference).

Dr has suggested cystoscopy under GA as our next step, which is scaring me to say the least.

My question is, would you bother to do it knowing what you know now? From what I understand, even if they don't find inflamation etc they can still suggest you have IC if you have the other symptoms...so it's not going to rule that out. And surely there are other tests to rule out things like bladder cancer (I've read of certain blood tests etc). So what is the point?

It just seems so extreme? Or am I overthinking it.

[flowerangela]

it is a good way to find out if you have IC or not,however there are a few other tests they can do that i dont think would be as invasive.i had my first cystoscopy 2 weeks ago and am in severe pain since. it may take me a month to heal from it.make your choice wisely.i had one uti in particular that wouldnt clear up so they had to hospitalize me to get rid of it.then i decided to go to a uro to find out why these recurrent utis kept happening.i told him my symptoms some of them match ic and some of them dont so he put me under a cysto in the hospital w/ anesthesia. he came to the conclusion i had IC from that cysto.he never explained to me what he saw and i am in severe pain ever since.

[cmclien]

Hi, You will get both sides of this and really it depends on your uro. I'll just give you my uro's perspective. I had the in office cystoscopy which rules out cancer and I don't know what else. It took 10 minutes, my particular experience was not painful and was un-eventful. It would also show obvious ulcers and sores which I didn't have. So where did that leave us? with symptoms. He said he would treat me with instills if I have very much pain, (which I do not). Where does this leave my diagnosis? He said I either have mild IC or OAB, but not sure it matters as treatment starts the same and is the same diet etc. Even on this site mild IC doesn't list pain as a symptom. I'd say I have pressure, discomfort sometime but not pain. My doc thinks going under GA anytime shouldn't be treated so lightly.
Now, the other side is if you have the cysto/hydro under GA, there will be no doubt. But again, what if they don't see anything? They will still treat you for pain I am assuming if you have pain. Some uro's won't treat without it.
I guess I would ask him how it might change his treatment plan whether he just does a cystoscopy or a cysto/hydro under GA. So the question is, will he treat you either way based on at least a cysto? I'm assuming he would want to do that no matter what to rule things out.
The last point I have to make is some people experience quite a bit of pain after it which only makes matters worse. Some people re-bound after a couple of weeks and feel much better....unfortunately its individual.
I don't think you are overthinking it as it took me years just to go see someone and agree to an in office cysto!

[elliel]

thank you Flowerangela and Cindi - it's really helpful to hear your experiences.

I don't have pain or nocturia. Just very frequent urination and sometimes strong bladder pressure.

So I'm guessing that the route I would start down is alternative therapies and diet changes (which I'm already doing) to try and control whatever this is. Though my dr seems very keen on dishing out antibiotics so I'm assume he'd prefer the more medical approach!

It's just the idea that you could go through all of the pain of a cysto (with the water thing)...be told there are no ulcers, bleeding etc...but yes we still say you have IC which seems weird to me and makes me question the reason for doing it (if you can exclude other things in less invasive ways). Also keen to avoid an unnecessary GA if I have to!

[elliel]

flowerangela - I meant to say - sorry you are still in so much pain. that's awful

[cmclien]

You could just have OAB or mild IC, its still unclear to me where one crosses into the other as OAB has no pain, and mild IC has no pain? I have alot of pressure and frequency, sometimes discomfort too.
The "plain" cystoscopy if you are comfortable doing it at least tells them what you don't have and gives the overall health of the bladder. Now mine didn't hurt and they do put sterile saline in your bladder but not to the point of pain. They just wanted me to let them know when it was really full and when it was they drained it out. So give that a thought.
Will your doc do mild treatment without it? such as anticholinergenics like vesicare, ditropan, enablex which help with frequency etc.

[elliel]

It is very unclear to me too and I know there are a few schools of thought that oversensitive bladder is the same as IC? I have no idea what's right. I see so many different comments on sites and forums. Also drs don't seem to totally agree do they?

Cindi - you are giving me such helpful advice - thank you. I will ask him why not just the plain cysto - it seems to make more sense with a case as early/mild as mine.