InterStim update, 34 days since stage 2 surgery

If this is your first time here or you have not read my blog for awhile my InterStim journey blogs started back on 11-29-10 and posted through 12-16-10. I may be off a couple days in Dec but it is close. I have logged my journey with both stage 1 and stage 2 of the surgeries.

It is DAY 34 after stage 2 surgery.  has it worked awesome?  Not awesome but at least 50% better, so that is definitely a plus.  What is working is for the incontinence, perfect, it is gone! As far as the over active bladder part…not so much.  Don’t get me wrong, like I said it is better but still not where it should be. 

I have good days and bad days meaning that some days I really notice that I am not in the bathroom so much and other days it is like I was prior to surgeries.  For the most part we are about half and half meaning part of the day is good and the other part I pee a lot still.

I went to my Urologist yesterday for my post opp appointment and he put me back on enablex but instead of the 15mg that I was in prior to surgery, it is 7.5mg.  I was/am a little bummed about this as the whole point of surgery was to get of of meds and now I am frustrated that I am taking them again.  A smaller does is better but still, ugh!

I had turned up my InterStim to about 4.0 and he does not want me to take it up much more so that is why he suggested the meds.  We can still do some fine tuning on the programming but since I am not experiencing good enough results he feels I may still need the meds even with the fine tuning.

Pros of my surgery:
I can work out without peeing myself, so I can jump again.
Half the time it is better, that is still better then before surgery
I have gone on drives for 2.5 hours without stopping to go to the restroom.
When it is a good day, I notice it and it feels awesome!

Cons of my surgery
Only works half the time, of course I was hoping for more.
Still having to fool around with medications.
Feeling down and out on those off days and this is not fum.

So was the surgery worth it?  Oh yes I still believe it was a great thing for me.  The pros out weigh the cons and even my cons are better then they were before the surgery.  I have had bladder issues since I was born.  I was not one of those that only had problems after kids or later in life.  I have had bladder issues ALL my life.  I know that not many people can say that so I knew going into anything that it would be hard to treat me.

Would I still recommend this surgery?  Yes I would as long as someone does their research on both the surgery and on their own personal issue as just like anything else, it is not for everyone.

I will keep you posted on what happens with adding the meds!

One thing I am dreading with the meds is that when I am on them I am constipated a lot.  I did get this under control with extra fiber pills but since I have been of the meds i have not had to take any extra fiber.  Hopefully the lower does works so I won’t be as bad this time!
Never know when the good day will be.

Come back often as I will always be updating my progress.  You never know when I will post about it because I don’t know!! LOL