Bladder retraining

[Bethrlk]

Has anybody had luck with bladder retraining?

Thanks for any info - BETH

[izazen]

One theory is that if you already know when you're going to "go" it will, psychologically, take the pressure off the "do I or don't I?" feeling. Also, I find the bladder is a creature of habit and it will give you the urge about the same time you went last time (same interval, that is.)
I try to go every 3 hrs during the day (worst time for me) and just let nature take its course when I'm relaxing in the evening and in bed. Usually the latter falls in the 3-4-5 hr time span.

[Bethrlk]

Boy, I envy you! I wish I could do the 3 hour thing during the day. As it is, I can hold my urine UNcomfortably for about an hour to an hour and 1/2. As for the evenings, I usually manage about 2-3 hours, unless I am flaring (like now....which means 30 minutes to an hour...)

Trying to get off the pity pot, but finding it real hard this week!

I am going to start off this week with the hour intervals and try to increase each week by 10 minutes - hopefully I can teach my bladder a thing or two!

Thanks for your reply....
Beth

[ICNDonna]

It's best if you work with your medical professionals on this. I have read that it's not a good idea to try retraining if you are in pain.

Warm healing thoughts,
Donna

[dg2901]

Beth,

I agree that it would be best to do the bladder retraining under your Dr's care. Inform your Dr that you would like to try this and let him/her guide you with how long your voiding intervals should be.

I personally had good results with bladder retraining.
Hopefully it will work for you.

Take care
D

[blondie45]

Bladder retraining

I have had success with bladder retraining. I have had IC for almost 20 years now. I just gradually tried to hold it a few more minutes every week until I sort of had a set schedule. Still to this day if I go more often in the day than normal, the urgency feeling will come back. My bladder retraining has only helped with the urgency and the having to go every hour of the day. This has not really helped my pain problems from the IC. I have built myself up to only having to go about 5 times a day and once or twice at night. I also agree to work with your doctor and if you are prone to urine infections when you hold urine (which a lot of people are when they are holding urine) this may not be a good idea. Just wanted to share what has helped me somewhat.

[addie]

With the bladder retraining, does it actually make you FEEL like you have to go less often? Or are you just teaching yourself how to hold it, but you still have the feeling that you need to go? I am usually able to hold it for quite a while if I need to, but I find the feeling of needing to go pretty distracting, so unless I'm in a meeting or a really good movie, I usually don't hold it too long.

[dg2901]

addie....I found that bladder retraining helped me to not only teach the bladder to hold off a bit longer between voids, it also helped me learn how to ignore the signals of having to void before my scheduled time.
I started by voiding every hour on the hour whether I needed to or not, and every 5 days I increased the time between voids by 15 minutes (per my URO and PT).

Diana

[blondie45]

Bladder retraining

With me I finally got to a point after while of not feeling like I have to go ALL of the time even right after I had gone. I still have the small feeling of pain mostly all of the time but the urgency all of the time is gone, although like I said if I for some reason start a small flare and have to go more often then the feeling of urgency is there again. I then in this case do the bladder retraining again for a couple days and then all is back to normal (if we can ever consider ourselves normal). As far as how long it took me to get to his point once I started bladder retraining is hard to say because it was soooo many years ago, but I would have to guess a few months maybe. I hope it gives you some success if you decide to try it!

[meme]

For me, I don't think I could retrain my bladder since it isn't that I pee when I don't have to, I pee because its spasming or I'm in intense pain. In which case, sometimes there's no way I could make it the 5-10more minutes that my schedules says I have to the next time I pee. My husband tried to talk me into that at first because he thought it was all in my head that I'd just grown accustomed to going all the time. Once he realized that its an actual disorder (I showed him the pics of my bladder-try to hold anything in that ulcerated mess) he hasn't brought it up since!