Urine retention during pregnancy

[momofkings]

I am about 15 weeks pregnant and have just been through a horrific ordeal.  I have never heard of anything like this before and am hoping someone on here has some knowledge or suggestions for me.  I noticed a few weeks ago I had trouble urinating in the night.  I would feel like I had to go but couldn't, but then the next morning everything seemed fine.  I experienced no pain and decided to mention it to my ob/gyn at my next regular appointment.  This past Sunday evening it happened again, only I could not go on Monday morning.  I thought I was getting a uti so I called my doctor and got a prescription for an antibiotic, as I was traveling that day and wanted to just nip it in the bud.  I normally don't take medication so quickly but in this case I felt I needed it fast.  As the day progressed, the pain got worse and worse.  I ended up having to get depends diapers because the pain would come like a contraction and I felt like I would push and then urine would come out.  I soaked several depends over the coarse of the day.  By the time we got back to Florida, I was in severe pain.  WE called my doctor and they said to go to the hospital.  By the time we got there I could barely walk.  They administered some pain medication when they saw the pain level until we could figure out what was going on.  There was no infection in my urine, no kidney stones or masses blocking the urine flow.  (tests of ultrasounds on kidneys, scans on bladder and a scope looking into my bladder were done).  They said when I felt like I was urinating, it was basically just urine spilling out because my bladder was so full.  The pain was from the spasming.  Well, I have a tilted uterus and I remember I had read once that most women's uterus move back into "normal" position after the first trimester, but in 15-20% of women it does not.  This could cause the uterus to put pressure on the urethra and block the flow of urine.  This made sense to me, and I amthinking this is the problem, because all other possibilites have been ruled out.  If this is the case, we have to wait for the baby to grow more and move from that position.  I was sent home with a catheter in place.  I'm not enjoying that, but just remind myself of the horrific pain and this option is much better.  They drained off a liter and a half of urine the first time and then the pain was gone.  They took it out and I waited 6 hours, felt like I had to go and could not go at all, so they put the catheter back in place. 

Has anyone out there had any experience like this before?  Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Assuming this is the problem, the only thing to do is trial and error, take the catheter out and see if I can go, but that is so painful I do not want to do this often.  My doctor wants to see me in only one week to try it.  She made mention that she hoped we didn't have to deal with it througout the whole pregnancy!   Thanks in advance to anyone who has any comments.

[grocerygetter]

BUMP
I'm praying for you!

[Gigi]

Hi!  I'm so sorry, this sounds just terrible!

My sister had this EXACT problem - she had to be catheterized in order to urinate at all.  She had lots of pain, no infections, just the physical problem of the uterus blocking the urethra.

I have no help for the specific problem except to encourage you:  my sister DID grow out of this!! It only lasted a few weeks (at the most) and then stopped.

I suppose it goes without saying that maybe during this time you should try to avoid anything that would stimulate extra urine production, like caffeine.

[momofkings]

Thank you.  Do you know how they diagonosed your sister?  My doctor has not specifically said this is the cause yet, and I am wondering if there is a specific test to show the uterus blocking the urethra?  I asked her but she didn't seem to think a trans vag. ultrasound would show it.  This isn't my regular doctor, either, so I am not relating to her as well as I would like. 

[Gigi]

Ya know what?  I'll call her and ask, ok?

I'll try to get her this pm and I'll post what I learn!

[Gigi]

Hello Again!

I talked to my sister and first of all, she says she feels your pain and is so sorry that you're going through this!!

She said that there was no specific test to show that anything was blocked.  She had to be catheterized several times to empty her bladder because she absolutely could not "go." 

She knew she had a tilted uterus from her first pregnancy.  This all happened at the beginning of her second pregnancy. 

The Dr. said he was pretty sure that, because there were no infections, tests for other things came back negative, and her uterus was tilted, that he thought the urethra was definitely just being blocked by the uterus.  He said that it would only be for a short time, until the uterus got large enough that it would not "sink" into that little space.  Again, I guess this is only a problem if you have a tilted uterus.

So, not knowing for sure if it would work, he manually went in and pushed my sister's uterus out of the "hole" it wanted to sink into (thus blocking the urethra.) 

This worked for my sister!  She was "back to normal" with being able to urinate again, but she had to spend the next 2-3 weeks OFF her feet.  So, she went to her MIL house and basically laid down or sat down the whole time.  Then she came off the best rest slowly so as not to rush anything.  This helped her to keep the uterus in the position that the Dr. had manually put it in long enough for the uterus to grow big enough to not give a problem again.

My sis said that maybe you could mention this to your doc/nurse and see if they are willing to give this a try.  (Of course, you'll have to stay off your feet for a couple weeks, but sounds like with the terrible pain you've been in that this wouldn't be such a bad option!)

Do you think your interim dr would try this for you?

HTH

[ShabbyChic]

Hey, I had the EXACT same thing happen to me, and it really, really scared me.  It was the month before I got pregnant with my first son.

I usually visit the restroom 2-3 times a night anyway, but everytime I went it was 3 drops and I still felt like I had to go... desperately!  It lasted for most of the night and around 4 the next morning my husband took me to the hospital because I was doubled over in pain.

My urine had blood in it at this point and they said my bladder was hemorrhaging.  They gave me some serious pain meds for like 12 hours worth, an antibiotic, and did an x-ray, and sent me home and told me to take it easy for a week.  I've never had any trouble since then, but they didn't give me any reason behind it, just a fluke thing.  I'd love to know what causes your bladder to hemorrhage.   

[boysmama]

This happened to me once in late pregnancy. The midwife internally shifted the baby off and I was able to go. I felt    as it had been about 14 hours of retention. She suggested that if it happened again I could lay backwards over the bed or couch (head on floor belly up) to shift things around enough. Don't know if that would work for you but I would definitely try it if in that situation again. OUCH!

[BJ_BOBBI_JO]

I don't know if this would work during a pregnancy but I once had my urethra blocked off by swollen inner female parts because of surgery. I knew I had to pee so badly but could not.

So I tried differant peeing positions. Like sitting on the potty backwards and so on. What worked the best for me was to stand over the potty somewhat stooped and leaning my upper body forward. A leg was on both sides of the potty not in front of the potty.  This seemed to have move over whatever was blocking the urethra.

I dunno  if differant peeing positions would help your case or not but I thought I would mention it. Good luck to ya ! I will certainly say a prayer for you especially since I know how miserable it is to have that constant full bladder feeling.

[momofkings]

Thanks for all your suggestions.  I had wondered if my position could change the position of the uterus.  I will speak to my doctor when I go to my appt. on Wed.  We are removing the catheter that day and seeing if I can go on my own, if not the catheter goes back in and I suppose we will continue to check it.  I am told that this HAS to correct itself as the baby eventually grows from that position and the uterus moves up.  I'm hoping this will happen quickly.  I do not like having the catheter, but I am so thankful not to have the pain that I will gladly take this option instead.  It helps to know there are others out there who have had a similar experience, I had never heard of this before.  This is my 6th live pregnancy and I have never had the issue, although I've always had a tilted uterus.  One of the nurses in the hospital suggested that made sense as the more children one would have the muscles could become slower to move.  Thanks again for the comments and keep them coming if anyone has anything more to share.  Also thanks so much for the prayers! 

[momofkings]

I just got to thinking....I'm assuming that as the baby grows out of this position that the trouble will be over, but I was just rereading some of your posts and a few of you had the problem in LATE pregnancy.....I'm just trying to make sense of this and I can't.  Can someone explain how this can be?  I'm thinking once the baby has grown some more, it wouldn't go back to this position, blocking my urethra.  Help??

[Gigi]

momofkings,

My sister had this problem in the early weeks of pregnancy, not at the end.  How's it going?

Gigi

[momofkings]

I remember you saying your sister had almost the exact experience as I am having now, but then others wrote in and told of this experience only LATER in the pregnancy.  I remember the doctor stating "I hope we don't have to deal with this the whole pregnancy."  Yeah, me too!!!!

I go to the doctor tomorrow.  I am to take out the catheter 2 hours before my appointment and then see if I am able to go at the office.  If I can't go, I suppose they put the catheter back in and we try again at a later time.  It's only been a week, I'm 15 1/2 weeks along now, it seems kind of soon, I amnot looking forward to having to take it out and possibly back in, but maybe I'm just being pessimistic.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Thanks!

[boysmama]

I'm not sure how all the early or late in pregnancy plays out. In late pregnancy (my case) the baby was quite low, and actually turned out to have his elbow above his head. I am assuming that somehow that is part of why the uretha got pinched shut until he was manually shifted off.
This was several weeks before birth but the cervix was already forward and partially dilated. Sorry not much of an answer. 

[kcb]

Would strengthening the "Kegel" muscle help?  After many pregnancies, the pelvic floor muscles get all stretched out . . . Have you done exercises for toning this muscle?  If you haven't, it might help a lot.

[momofkings]

I'm not sure if it would help this particular problem or not--but it can't hurt!  I try to remember to do them, but have not been real faithful I have to admit.  I need to associate them with an activity I do regularly.  Thanks for the reminder.

As for an update on me....I removed the catheter 2 hours before my appointment and was able to urinate at the doctor's office twice and have been going ever since.  I never thought I would be so happy to pee!!  Hopefully the problem is passed.  The doctor did say that if I cannot go again to get to their office or the er if after hours to get the catheter put back in, but I am hoping that will never happen!! 

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and prayers.  Hopefully this chapter of the book is CLOSED for good!!

[panmamma]

I am so glad to read this. Not that I am glad others have this problem!
This is the second time this happened, I was kinda expecting it. THough my first time (with ds2) I think I had an infection with it. This time, it has gone on for a few days, mainly just one certain time of the AM (like just getting up) and then I am fine. I have a tilted uterus, so I guess that has a big part, and bladder prolapse. Geez! almost 34yr old and falling apart!!
Unfortunately, I have 29 hours of traveling to do and can't see my dr til Monday morning at the earliest. So please say a little prayer for me!!

[momofkings]

Panmamma--

That is how mine started out, I wouldn't be able to go much in the morning, or it would be very very slow.  I didn't think much of it, there was no pain or anything, I decided to mention it to my doctor at my next scheduled check up.  The urine retention came on like gangbusters when I was out of state and had to travel by car and plane a total of 6 hours.  I was in EXTREME pain, I would say worse than labor.  I highly recommend that if you get to the point that you cannot pee at all, even if you are not near your doctor, to go to an er wherever you are and make sure you don't get to that point.  I thought I had an infection so I was downing tons of water thinking I would "flush it out" but what it did was get my bladder so full it would spasm and then it would just spill all over.  I thought I was peeing, but it was really just such pressure that it came out at those times and like I said EXTREMELY painful.  So, please don't let it get to that point. 

My doctor still says they have never seen anything like that before, although I have heard from people here that have had it happen, and I originally read about it in the What to Expect book.  The good news is that as the baby grows and your uterus changes position, the problem should go away.  I haven't had any problems since (I am 34 weeks along now).  I am still thankful everytime I can pee!

Keep us posted!

[momofkings]

Panmamma,
When is your trip?  Just take it easy and don't let it get out of hand.  I'll be thinking of you!