No urge to pee

I am one day short of being one week out of surgery. Is not having any urge to pee coming from all the trama that that bladder endured during surgery? I thought I read somewhere on here that this may be from lack of hormones. I did lose both of my ovaries. My Dr doesn't start HRT until at least 6 wks out from surgery.

Thanks for the help.

Hey Christy, I had my DaVinci LAVH radical on June 2, and my bladder problems drove me to the brink. I couldn't feel my bladder getting full, I couldn't empty it completely, and I was leaking with no warning and you can imagine how awful that made me feel! I also drove myself nuts being an "internet doctor" and that just made everything worse, and I got pretty dehydrated trying to control things. I'm 4 weeks post-op today, and last Friday the leaking stopped, and I can now feel my bladder getting full and am really enjoying peeing again, if that makes any sense. I'm also concentrating on drinking lots of water. My gyn told me that hormones don't really have anything to do with these immediate post-op bladder issues, we just need to be patient as this surgery can really cause the bladder and bladder sphincters to freak out. Of course you should call your doctor if symptoms persist, I called my surgeon's nurse every other day after I got home and even talked to her this morning! Drink alot of water and just sit on the toilet and let things relax and do their thing. Good luck to you and happy healing!

I'm frustrated with this too, in fact I went to the doctor this morning just to make sure I'm not infected. He doesn't think I am but he's sending a sample off just in case. I did get some extra explanation though: the bladder is actually a muscle, so in the course of surgery and all the manipulation it has been traumatized and is spasming. Think of an overworked muscle from exercise, it's kind of the same thing. Plus, if you had any specific bladder work done - I had a sling put in - the bladder has actually been invaded with sutures or what-have-you and needs time to heal. This doctor told me it takes up to 6 weeks for scarring normally to settle down so that's how long we need to be patient for.

In the meantime, we discussed strategy, most of which I've been doing but he refined it for me a bit. Drink cranberry juice to help soothe it and prevent infection. Use heat, like a heating pad, to try to calm it. It can be hard to get heat right to the bladder but I do find this helps. I'm finding that I do best if I go often, not waiting to fill up completely. The fuller it is, the more it spasms and "rebels" when I want it to empty and the more frustrated I feel. Keep the bowels moving - prunes, fibre, water, walking, etc. - as a full bowel puts extra pressure on the bladder and makes it feel awful (at least for me). The doctor told me that if it gets really bad to go to emerg. for a catheter but as one last ditch remedy before that, sit in a warm bath for a bit and pee right into the water. It may sound gross to some but it's the lesser of two evils right? If you really don't want to do that, try a shower with the water aimed at your lower back. That works wonders for me.

Wow, thanks ladies! I see my Dr in a few days. It always feels great to be able to talk to others here and know you are not alone.