Bladder problems
My bladder problem started a few months after the treatment ended. Initially I was leaking urine and had to use the loo very often. This began to affect my confidence. Then, I started having pain in the bladder area, followed by blood spots in the urine. I was referred urgently to a urology team and after carrying out investigations they started me with treatments. A cystoscopy was done to allow doctors to look inside the bladder using a flexible tube with a light which is passed through the urethra. They tried me with tranexamic acid tablets and a liquid was put into the bladder through a catheter. I had to have blood transfusions on several ocassions as I was losing a lot of blood. Unfortunately, it become necessary to have a urostomy operation. The scarring had caused my bladder to become hard and narrow. After the surgery, my lymphoedema disappeared. Tests showed that my lymph nodes were just inflamed, not damaged.
What might help to make things better?
Acupuncture - Is a practice which involves inserting small needles into the body to reduce pain or discomfort. According to Cancer Research UK (5), acupuncture can be used to relax the bowel and bladder after pelvic radiotherapy. I had this therapy for a while and it helped. Once the treatment had ended I was back to square one.
What to avoid.
- Moderate your liquid intake to avoid over-filling the bladder at any one time.
- Drink plenty of water, but in small or moderate amounts.
- Drink cranberry juice if you fid it helps with the burning sensation of passing urine. It can be diluted with water to avoid it causing diarrhea.
DON'T
- Drink too little or you will become dehydrated, causing constipation and strong urine that may sting more than usual.
After my urostomy surgery, my urology team discovered that i was having a uritric stricture, which is a narrowing of the ureter. It can be caused by trauma, which in my case was the radiotherapy. I had a stent put in to try and make it more flexible for three months. This didn't work for me. I had a lot of infections around that time and at the end i had to have an operation to remove my left kidney. I must say, it took me such a long time to recover from this operation.
