Holding Bladder Instillation one hour

[Melanie526]

So, I'm reading that many people hold the meds for about 15 minutes or so.

I did 9 treatments altogether, and held it for an hour (which is what the doctor told me to do) every time.

Can you hold the meds in your bladder too long? My doctor said no, the longer the better.

I had DMSO (50), heparin, kenalog, sodium bicarbonate.

My bladder pain is much worse now, and the things I am trying (diet, new meds, TENS Unit) are not helping...my bladder pain is every day, nonstop.

Wondering if the bladder instillations did more harm than good or if I would be this bad even if I hadn't had them done.

[ICNDonna]

DMSO is usually not held longer than twenty minutes.

Donna

[kadi]

Agree with Donna. I had a local urologist tell me to hold it for 2 hours so I called my specialist at a large research hospital to make sure it was ok (didn't sound right to me) and he actually got on the phone to call me back himself (which was very rare) to say "absolutely NOT" and that holding it longer than 20 minutes just increases irritation and does not provide any more benefit.

[nottoc4]

I had Dmso instills too and held them in for 1 hour. I was already in so much pain I couldn't tell you if it made it worse or not. I can tell you that between the instills and oral Elmiron and Imipramine,I have been pretty symptom free since May of 2009.

[honeymuffin]

My doctor said I could hold it up to an hour but anything beyond that is not good. I'd wait out the first 20 minutes in his office but sometimes I wasn't able to void in his office right after. My urethra would burn too much because of the catheter and I would clamp up. On those days I would drive back home through traffic and go right around the hour mark. I always felt more comfortable going in the peace and quiet of my own home.

I did 6 sessions and feeling much better now than before, but it's hard to say if the improvement had anything to do with the DMSO. I started feeling better on vacation which was about a week after I completed the treatment. Throughout the entire 6 weeks of treatment I felt like crap.

[kadi]

Same thing here

I started feeling better on vacation which was about a week after I completed the treatment. Throughout the entire 6 weeks of treatment I felt like crap.

I had the same experience during my six weeks of Friday DMSO treatments! In fact, my doctor told me to give up on them after I had 4 treatments, but I said I wanted to finish. I figured I had nothing to lose since I already felt so terrible all the time anyway. After I got better when the series was over, I had the treatments once a month.

But, that said, the home rescue instillations were much better for me & have restored me to a much higher quality of life.