Post RALP urine retention; catheter back in. Help, need advice.
Love to hear if others dealt with these issues and how were they resolved?
RALP done at high volume center with top doc on west coast. A little good news first. RALP went extremely well. Bilateral nerve sparing and hood sparing reconstruction. Pathology report just came back and all lymph nodes clear, no upgrades (still 3+4), .87 decipher but negative surgical margins, and doc said he is confident i won't need any additional treatment for cancer....gone :-)
Bad news. Day 7 post op cath removed. A few drops of blood but nothing very uncommon per nurse. Void trail left 26 cc inside and weak stream...nothing too concerning...sent home.
Next 24 hours, very weak stream but urinating a little every couple hours...enough to make me feel like I still have to go a little but I'm good. Eventually getting some pain in bladder area and went to urgent care. Bladder scan showed about 28 cc....not that much. No UTI. Given Phenazopyrudine HCL to calm bladder down a bit.
Next morning, woke up with severe pain as I moved to get out of bed and couldn't urinate. Turned into 10 out of 10 pain worst in my life...and I was stabbed in the back 3 times with a collapsed lung and nicked aortic artery...that was nothing compared to this. Took Oxy pill did nothing so called called 911. Sweating profusely and almost went unconscious. Ended up in ER, 2 shots of morphine didn't resolve pain. Bladder scan showed 320 cc retention. Couldn't urinate. Catheter back in (wasn't bad at all probably because NOTHING could compare to pain i was already feeling in entire abdomen and even chest and left arm/shoulder). Within 15 minutes of catheter, I had zero pain. Negative for UTI, abdominal ultrasound didn't show anything of concern.
Surgeon called me while in ER. Said he believes I needed more time to heal and could have used more days with cath in. Said this cath will stay in 7 days, prescribed flomax, and scheduled ct cystigram prior to cath removal.
Chatgpt believes these are the causes:
Postoperative swelling around the bladder-urethra connection ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (most likely)
Bladder spasms/hypersensitivity after catheter removal and reinsertion ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Has anyone experienced this? Advice? Chances second catheter removal will go smoother? 😵💫🤢