Trouble Getting Bladder Full Enough Before Radiotherapy?

User

Posted 02 Jul 2016 at 16:52

Hi,

I'm new to the forum but was hoping someone might have some ideas to help me.

I've had chemotherapy and am on hormones (Zoladex) for T3 prostate cancer. I'm now

half way through 7 1/2 weeks of radiotherapy. Having had no major problems throughout

the rest of the treatment so far, I'm having real difficulty filling my bladder enough prior to

each radiotherapy session and wonder if anyone else has experienced a similar problem?

The guidance is to drink 1-2 litres water per day to keep hydrated and 450mls around

20 minutes before my appointment. I've given up coffee, keep alcohol to the days off at

the weekend and don't drink fizzy drinks. But however much water/squash I drink I

still have to drink more when I get to the hospital and wait until it reaches my bladder.

I can drink 3 pints of water and still have a bladder that's not full enough - goodness knows

where it's all going!

It's getting to the point where I'm nearly wetting myself on the way there! I just

can't work out how to regulate it and wonder if anyone else has had the same trouble and

worked out the answer?

Edited by member 02 Jul 2016 at 17:40 | Reason: Not specified

User

Posted 02 Jul 2016 at 17:59

Ian have they told you your bladder isnt full enough?

I had RT about 9.00am. My RT routine was empty bowels and bladder first thing. Get to RT suite about 3/4 of an hour prior to RT in case i needed toilet again. Then at the alotted time drink approx 500ml of water. Have the RT then empty the bladder.

Bri

User

Posted 02 Jul 2016 at 18:22

Ian,

Tell me about it! I was the ' bad boy ' at my RT centre, the one who couldn't get his water levels right on several occasions. In the first week I had a 50% success rate on the bladder front. After the usual pre- scan one of the radiographers would come into the theatre and say " sorry, not enough water in you. Can you go back, empty your bladder and start again." Towards the end in the last week of 7.5 weeks , I had terrible bladder control and had to ask for the treatment to be stopped on two occasions. And to request a bottle too.

I was told this often happens and was shown the cupboard full of bottles, with several empty spaces. You could always tell those who were not coping before RT as they were unable to sit still. Holding a full bladder is a real skill. Sometimes men would rush off to find a toilet hoping that no one noticed!

The radiographers are quite used to this happening ( told it had occurred 4 times to other patients one day and I was the fifth) and in time I perfected the routine. I achieved this by taking on fluids during the early morning to keep well hydrated and then not drink anything for at least 2 hours before my afternoon sessions. Then I drank the 450 ml of water 45 minutes before the scheduled time.

Hope it goes better for you.

John

User

Posted 02 Jul 2016 at 23:21

Thanks John,

Sounds as though you had similar problems. I'll give it a go!

User

Posted 03 Jul 2016 at 09:30

I generally had no problems with getting my bladder full. I had to drink 3 cups of water from the fountain at the centre half an hour before my scan and that normally worked. Except one day when I had an appointment straight after lunch and since I had had a cup of tea with that I only had 2 cups when I got there - wrong, the tea probably had just the wrong effect. I found having a glass of squash first thing in the morning helped me stop getting dehydrated.

During my 20 treatments I had more problems at the other end in getting my bowels empty and in the first week I had to go and empty them before a second attempt - the other patients joked that I was always the trouble maker who delayed things.... Then I developed a technique of sitting on the loo just before I got changed into my gown to get any residual gas out of the system (making sure I didn't empty my bladder at the same time) and that seemed to do the trick, no problems thereafter (apart from when the machine broke down halfway through my session which happened a couple of times...).

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