Ditropan - Seeing Dr Tomorrow HELP!

[JustmeGemmy]

I'm currently taking Ditropan 5mg, 3 times a day. I was told to increase it to 4 times a day but I had to force the urine out & that was giving me some pain in my muscles.

I'm just not sure when to take it! I think maybe I'm overthinking it, but do I take it as soon as I get up (about 8am), then midway through the day (about 4pm) & then my final one right before I go to bed at about midnight? Or should I have them closer together?

I'm not entirely sure it's even helping. I still have a lot of frequency & urgency. When it hits, it hits! I couldn't make it home earlier when I needed to wee & had to stop off in the Drs surgery just to relieve the pressure.. But even then, I still had some pressure.

I'm thinking about going back to see my Dr & asking her to give me something different. The ditropan seems to only really just prevent me from wetting myself but that's never even been a problem so it seems pointless taking a tablet to stop it from happening!

I've had an awful dry mouth, I don't sweat at all (which is actually my favourite side effect! Other than the red face it causes. Lol) & diarrhoea for the last 4-5 days in the morning.

Please, I would really appreciate some advice on this. I'm going to see my Dr tomorrow & I think she's already fed up of me! :'(

[phoenixgirl]

I'm glad you're going to see your doctor. Ditropan doesn't work for everyone. I have horrible frequency issues and 4 oxybutynin a day didn't do a thing for me but make my mouth so dry that I couldn't even swallow. I told my doctor that it wasn't working and she switched my medication. I'm now on amiltryptilene and vesicare and that seems to be helping. Keep trying different medications until you find something that will help. I know it's easy to get discouraged but don't give up. I hope your appointment tomorrow brings you some answers.

[JustmeGemmy]

I keep thinking I'm imagining the whole thing! I feel like a crazy person.

I feel ok when I'm sitting down.. Like right now I've not been for a wee for about an hour & a half, which is really good for me! But is that the ditropan or is it the antibiotics? I'm scared that I might end up on some medication that doesn't help at all. I don't know whether to see my Dr tomorrow or wait until the weekend is over & go back after then if I need to.

It just means I probably can't leave the house for the next few days for any longer than 30 minutes

[earthlady]

My dr. had mentioned to me that the extended release OAB meds seem to have fewer side effects than the ones you have to take several times a day. Vesicare is on that you only take once a day, and so is Gelnique. They are supposedly good for 24 hours. I always had mixed results with OAB meds- sometimes they seemed to help an awful lot, and sometimes they didn't seem to do anything.

[VCNJ84]

I feel like I am having some success with Enablex.

I tried Vesicare and it made me exhausted and nauseous so my doctor switched me to Enablex.

[JustmeGemmy]

I saw my Dr & she's told me to come off the ditropan as it's not helping as it should. She didn't give me anything else.. She told me that she doesn't want to give me anything else without the advice of a specialist - which is great except for the fact that it could be MONTHS before I hear anything from the urology department! I have to feel as though I'm going to wee myself every minute of every day until then?! Seriously?! I asked her whether she'd be willing to do anything if it got as bad as it had before.. To the point that I had to waddle to work because I hadn't urinated in all of 20 minutes! I told her if she didn't, I would end up housebound! She simply said I wouldn't be housebound.

I'm at a loss here. She says my symptoms don't match up with anything she's ever come across. I'm a freakin' medical mystery as far as she's concerned. A miserable one at that!

[Mothergoose]

If she doesn't know what to give you to help you in the in term, why doesn't she call and ask the uro you are going to see what he/she suggests you try in the in term.

Yes you may end up house bound lots of us have.

I don't think that it is unreasonable of you to ask her to call the uro and explain your situation and ask for advice, maybe the uro will see you sooner if he knows whats happening.

Good luck MG

[earthlady]

Gee your dr. doesn't sound very empathetic. She must have never had any bladder problems herself, and has no idea how this stuff feels. I'm so sorry you will have to wait now. Is it possible for you to see someone else until you get in to the specialist? When I had an HMO and could only see their certain drs. I sometimes had to pay out of pocket to see someone when I was desperate. I hated to spend the money when I already had insurance but there were times I was glad I did.

[JustmeGemmy]

If she doesn't know what to give you to help you in the in term, why doesn't she call and ask the uro you are going to see what he/she suggests you try in the in term.

Yes you may end up house bound lots of us have.

I don't think that it is unreasonable of you to ask her to call the uro and explain your situation and ask for advice, maybe the uro will see you sooner if he knows whats happening.

Good luck MG

The way it seems to work here is my Dr can't talk to the Uro until he's seen me & the Uro can't see me for a few months because of waiting lists! I spoke to a friend who thought because my Dr couldn't diagnose & I'm in such discomfort that my referral might come quicker, but it won't. It just doesn't work that way

I was talking to my younger brother yesterday about the 'Postcode Lottery'. I've noticed a lot of people here aren't from the UK so I'll explain... Basically there are different levels of service depending on where you live. Our services are pretty poor. My brother was telling me about this woman who'd gone decades of her life with epilepsy where I live, the Drs had done no testing to find a cause & gave her the first medication they could think of. She then had to move to London (Where my brother lives now & is treated for epilepsy, which is how he came across her) & all of a sudden, she's been offered so many tests - she knows why she has seizures & has a medication plan, the works! The Drs here just don't want to run tests that they don't see as necessary or relevant. I had to request the gyn exam.

Luckily, my bladder doesn't seem too bad today. I'm just dreading it when it gets bad again. I just can't cope with it! A couple of weeks ago I wasn't able to sit for longer than 5 minutes before being desperate for the toilet!

My Dr has now suggested that being anxious about it is making it worse. So basically she thinks I'm imagining it & refuses to do anything else to help me. There are a few other Drs in the surgery that I could go to, but they're unlikely to help me & a few of them are crap anyway. One of them told my brother he might have appendicitis & to change his diet, if it didn't get better in a week then go back!! He actually had IBS (had the exact symptoms I have with it). That same Dr told me that urgency is normal & it didn't seem to bother him that only 20 minutes after urinating, I was so desperate to go again that I couldn't even hold a conversation without feeling as though I was going to have an accident.

So sorry for the rant.. I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel as though I have to google my symptoms & rule out anything serious myself because the Drs just won't do it! So far I've requested the gyn exam to see if I have bacterial vaginosis, which can cause frequency problems & I'm looking into getting a diabetes test.. I'm already at risk because I am overweight & have PCOS. I've had a couple of symptoms like headaches, tiredness, frequent urination, itchiness. I just don't see why I have to do all of the research here. If it is IC or anything similar then I won't have any answers for months.

[Judy Gee]

How are you doing now

Hi, just came across your post and was wondering how you are doing now. Your story sounded like a nightmare, guess we should be very thankful for the the care we can get in the USA. Hope you have gotten some relief. I have had some of your same symptoms at times but not as cronicley as you have gone through yourself.

[JustmeGemmy]

Hi, just came across your post and was wondering how you are doing now. Your story sounded like a nightmare, guess we should be very thankful for the the care we can get in the USA. Hope you have gotten some relief. I have had some of your same symptoms at times but not as cronicley as you have gone through yourself.

Things are a bit better in terms of my bladder. I have to go up to an hour & a half without using a toilet with work now & most of the time I can manage it.. Other times I have to dash to the nearest loo after work. Luckily I'm self employed so I don't really bother anyone with my toilet visits

My Uro hasn't been listening to what I've been telling him & has assumed that I have some kind of leakage & when I say I feel the need to urinate all the time, he thinks I mean I have to urinate all the time.. Which isn't the case. I know that 10 minutes after going for a wee, there's no point me going again.. But the pressure is there. All the time.

He's prescribed me some other tablets called 'Trospium Chloride' (Or Sanctura) which do pretty much the same thing as the Ditropan. I daren't take them because of the side effects I had last time.

I just feel as though I'm being sent around in circles. My Uro isn't willing to do many tests to rule things out.. He's decided I have an OAB & won't do any other tests to prove otherwise, which is really frustrating. I thought he was supposed to rule everything else out before coming to OAB? He's booked me for a flowrate test but I have to wait 3 months for that, which is a joke.

Going to see my GP next week to see if she can do anything to speed things up for me.. Or even write a letter requesting more tests. It's not as though I enjoy being poked & prodded but I don't want them assuming it's something if it's not. He's just done the bare minimum to make sure I don't have cancer or anything similar. (Which I don't, thankfully). He just doesn't understand why I need a proper diagnosis!

Have you been diagnosed with IC, Judy? Sorry for my ranting.. I saw my Uro yesterday so things are a little raw with me atm still

[Judy Gee]

Yes, I have been diagnosed about 4 yrs. ago but dealt with it 4 yrs. before that. I had a period of remission but went into a flare after a doc told me not to be using so much hormones. My original uro had prescribed more than that one wanted me to be on. He feels that mine is directly related to my hormones which has proven to be mostly true. When I cut back as "she" told me, the other uro, I got into a major flare. I was just getting that under control when I was put on Thyroid meds and Celebrex for my sciatica. About 6 weeks into using those drugs I was back to stage one, full flare. But I didn't know that it was those drugs that were giving me the problem until my uro told me that he thought it was a result of that. So I have been off those drugs that I took myself off of and have been recovering, slowly. I still have the noctoria and am dealing with that and have had to go back to the very beginning of my IC diet. I don't seem to tolerate the OAB meds at all. They shut me down with still having the pressure and not being able to go at all. I get this same thing at least once a night and just bare with it. I am supposed to go back on elavil which helped the last time but has it's own side affects. It sounds like you are not in the US???? Write anytime, I would be glad to share with you what little knowledge I have on all this.

[JustmeGemmy]

No, I'm in the UK & because of budget cuts, the NHS is slowly getting worse. I have a feeling they won't want to do any more tests after the flowrate because I'm not in a large amount of pain, I'm just uncomfortable & it inconveniences me but I'm able to do most normal things (as long as there is a toilet close by!)

It's sounds as though you've been through a really rough time with your IC. I'm glad you've found one of the triggers for it though. I'm exactly the same with OAB meds, they prevent me from being able to pass urine but the pressure is still there. If anything, it makes the situation worse because i panic in case I get sick from not being able to pass anything! Sounds silly, I know. I've not even started these other meds yet, I'm scared to take the leap.

[Judy Gee]

your reply

Wow! just wrote you a long reply and my internet stopped working. No, you don't sound silly. I am the same way. Until things settle down that's about all I can think about and I know that's not helpful. It can be scarey for sure and I go through my times of panic also. Beings that my computer is acting up for now I will make this short and not include all that I tried to write you earlier. If you would like to e-mail me at [email protected]. I would be willing to let you know more of what I have tried etc., who knows, maybe it would be helpful. Judy Gee