postpartum urinary retention please help me

[Emma1979]

i'm also having problems, different to yours but equally debilitating and depressing... i'm 4 weeks post partum with no sign of improvement... i have what they call 'stress incontinence', as in when you laugh, cough, lift something heavy etc, but i don't have to do ANY of those things to leak or wet my pants, i just have to stand up, or not have gone to the toilet for say an hour, and i am wet.... i am in tears several times a day and avoid leaving the house... i am told the same thing, it will get better in time.... i am so sceptical due to the severity of it, i just want to book in for surgery and get it fixed, i have a great baby and feel these first few months will be tainted as one of the worst times of my life due to this condition, when i should be enjoying my family.... with my first born i had a traumatic birth and very difficult baby, which also made the first 6 months or so a terrible time.... i finally feel like its my turn to have things semi under control, and i have a baby i feel i can 'manage', ie he isn't screaming the house down, and here i am too scared to move on the couch cos i keep pee-ing my pants.
sorry i've had such a whinge, just wanted to let you know there is someone else in a similar position as you....

i have just read that breast feeding can worsen incontinence due to the lack of oestregen levels, and when i give up breast feeding i will notice an improvement.... so now i have the added stress of choosing whether to breastfeed my baby, which it has been going relatively well, to giving it up and hoping my condition improves, and possibly getting a better quality of life for myself and my family as a result, and avoiding depression which i am inevitably headed towards...

sorry i've rambled, i am just so so so distraught, can't even go to the shops without having an accident, feel like i can't look after my family properly.... nobody is really helping me although i am seeing a physio on monday... everyone else just says 'give it time'... yeah meanwhile i am housebound and sobbing.

xx

[Inanna]

Emma big hugs my love - it sounds like things are really tough

Many women do have this & it is true it does get better in time. I know that is hard to hear but it is true. I had it to a lesser degree after my 3rd baby.

You do need to see a physio & I am shocked that you haven't been referred before now. It's very important. I have seen many women with what you describe & it can be treated & helped very effectively a great deal of the time by a good physio with postnatal specialty.

In the mean time it would be helpful to get some incontinence pads so you don't have to worry about accidents. It's very very important to do your pelvic floor exercises as often as you can... It's also helpful to "double void"... This is when you go to the loo to empty your bladder - do your thing. Get up and then sit down & do it again. Sometimes with the weight of pregnancy on your bladder &/or the strain of labour you can do some damage to the nerve endings. So your bladder doesn't feel full & it is. Or it feels empty but it's not.

It's a very good sign that you are voiding okay - now we need to train that bladder to recognise when it's wee time.

I hope you have some help from the physio - let us know how you go...

[GabberQueeN]

i'm also having problems, different to yours but equally debilitating and depressing... i'm 4 weeks post partum with no sign of improvement... i have what they call 'stress incontinence', as in when you laugh, cough, lift something heavy etc, but i don't have to do ANY of those things to leak or wet my pants, i just have to stand up, or not have gone to the toilet for say an hour, and i am wet.... i am in tears several times a day and avoid leaving the house... i am told the same thing, it will get better in time.... i am so sceptical due to the severity of it, i just want to book in for surgery and get it fixed, i have a great baby and feel these first few months will be tainted as one of the worst times of my life due to this condition, when i should be enjoying my family.... with my first born i had a traumatic birth and very difficult baby, which also made the first 6 months or so a terrible time.... i finally feel like its my turn to have things semi under control, and i have a baby i feel i can 'manage', ie he isn't screaming the house down, and here i am too scared to move on the couch cos i keep pee-ing my pants.
sorry i've had such a whinge, just wanted to let you know there is someone else in a similar position as you....

i have just read that breast feeding can worsen incontinence due to the lack of oestregen levels, and when i give up breast feeding i will notice an improvement.... so now i have the added stress of choosing whether to breastfeed my baby, which it has been going relatively well, to giving it up and hoping my condition improves, and possibly getting a better quality of life for myself and my family as a result, and avoiding depression which i am inevitably headed towards...

sorry i've rambled, i am just so so so distraught, can't even go to the shops without having an accident, feel like i can't look after my family properly.... nobody is really helping me although i am seeing a physio on monday... everyone else just says 'give it time'... yeah meanwhile i am housebound and sobbing.

xx

Oh hon, I so get you right now. I feel the same, i'm just so depressed and i bet my DH is sick to death of me whinging about it i also don't leave the house because i don't want to self cath somewhere but home.

please post in here as much as you want. the docs also say to me it will get better in time but i feel it's getting worse. Sorry my post is all over the place i'm crying my eyes out.

[Emma1979]

i am going to see the physio for the first time today, and after that my obsetrician, to hopefully get a referral to get some tests done to see exactly whats wrong.... i am not convinced its going to get better on its own, so i want to get all the groundwork done now so that if i end up having surgery to fix things, i am not waiting months and months to have the tests done and all that... i want to have it all happening now, so that when the time is right, as in, when enough time has passed that they tell me if it was going to get better it would have by now, then i can go straight ahead with surgery...

we have a family holiday booked with another family from my mothers group next month to queensland, and i can't really see at the moment how i can possibly go... i wouldn't even last the trip in the car to the airport without wetting myself.... i don't see how i can go on a plane and to theme parks etc... i would be needing the toilet literally every half hour.... can't believe i am considering cancelling, but what other choice do i have.... what a waste of money too.... its seriously ruining my life right now.

[GabberQueeN]

i am going to see the physio for the first time today, and after that my obsetrician, to hopefully get a referral to get some tests done to see exactly whats wrong.... i am not convinced its going to get better on its own, so i want to get all the groundwork done now so that if i end up having surgery to fix things, i am not waiting months and months to have the tests done and all that... i want to have it all happening now, so that when the time is right, as in, when enough time has passed that they tell me if it was going to get better it would have by now, then i can go straight ahead with surgery...

we have a family holiday booked with another family from my mothers group next month to queensland, and i can't really see at the moment how i can possibly go... i wouldn't even last the trip in the car to the airport without wetting myself.... i don't see how i can go on a plane and to theme parks etc... i would be needing the toilet literally every half hour.... can't believe i am considering cancelling, but what other choice do i have.... what a waste of money too.... its seriously ruining my life right now.

Hey hon, how did the physio go today???
I really hope you don't have to cancel your trip.... i honestly think daily why oh why did this have to happen. Big hugs to you.

[Emma1979]

physio was good... have a few things to try over the next couple of weeks, including 2 hours of horizontal rest time in the morning and also in the afternoon, i don't know how i am to do that with a baby and 3 year old, haha.... she was 100% positive things would get better....

then went to my obstetrician and am now feeling so so so down about it all, i suspected something had happened to my catheter in theatre during the birth, but my memory was hazy, but today he brought it up... he said something vague like 'there was some talk of the catheter getting yanked out when you rolled over in bed, or were moved onto the trolley'..... if this was the case the little balloon thingi would have damaged the urethral sphincter, which holds all the urine in the bladder.... to me this would make perfect sense, as whenever i move the urine is coming out... this was my greatest fear as it is not an easy fix, and in fact he didn't give me an answer really to how it would be fixed, but said the body has an amazing ability to self heal over time..... completely freaking out if this is the case, i wanted it to be something able to be fixed but this sounds really wishy washy and i am doing some research on the net and it is not looking good... i have a referal to the head of uro-gynae at monash but my appointment isn't until end of march.... here's hoping by then things have improved, but at the back of my mind i feel certain its the catheter damage that is causing me this, of course i don't know and could just be being negative....

if there was nothing to be done to treat this i honestly don't know what i would do...

[GabberQueeN]

physio was good... have a few things to try over the next couple of weeks, including 2 hours of horizontal rest time in the morning and also in the afternoon, i don't know how i am to do that with a baby and 3 year old, haha.... she was 100% positive things would get better....

then went to my obstetrician and am now feeling so so so down about it all, i suspected something had happened to my catheter in theatre during the birth, but my memory was hazy, but today he brought it up... he said something vague like 'there was some talk of the catheter getting yanked out when you rolled over in bed, or were moved onto the trolley'..... if this was the case the little balloon thingi would have damaged the urethral sphincter, which holds all the urine in the bladder.... to me this would make perfect sense, as whenever i move the urine is coming out... this was my greatest fear as it is not an easy fix, and in fact he didn't give me an answer really to how it would be fixed, but said the body has an amazing ability to self heal over time..... completely freaking out if this is the case, i wanted it to be something able to be fixed but this sounds really wishy washy and i am doing some research on the net and it is not looking good... i have a referal to the head of uro-gynae at monash but my appointment isn't until end of march.... here's hoping by then things have improved, but at the back of my mind i feel certain its the catheter damage that is causing me this, of course i don't know and could just be being negative....

if there was nothing to be done to treat this i honestly don't know what i would do...

Geez so the catheter got pulled out?? they should of told you that. I hope that i does get better for you this just shouldn't happen. we are supposed to be enjoying this time and we are both over shadowed but our bladder and it sucks.

[Emma1979]

yes catheter got pulled from bladder into the urethra.... i have no idea how serious this is or whether it will repair itself, or can be repaired.... research on the net doesn't seem very confident on having it repaired.... am so angry it happened..... i just want to enjoy my family and life and instead i am 100% preoccupied with this...

[GabberQueeN]

So 5 months on i can pe but still have NO sensation to go...... i cannot believe the BS so upset

[Miss H]

I just saw this for the first time. I have no experience regards it but couldn't read and not reply. Have you seen someone for a second, third, fourth opinion? How is your mental state? It must be very difficult for you to go through this. If it is a permanent thing, you need to find a way to deal with it and accept it. I know it doesn't sound achievable but it is the best thing you can do for yourself to get through it and move on. Remember, YOU are not your BODY. Please look after yourself mentally as well as physically.