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I had a visit with my new urologist yesterday. It's the second time I've seen him, and so far I think I like him. He seems to listen to me, which isn't always easy to find with doctors.
The main reason for the visit was to meet with the Interstim rep about the increased pain and urgency I've been having since September. I'd talked to another rep last week, who enabled one more program on my Interstim and had me switch to it. He'd also told me that if that didn't work, I'd need surgery to revise the leads. Fortunately, the rep I saw yesterday said that there are several more things that we can do before having to revise the leads. She suggested cycling through the higher-numbered programs, giving each one at least a week to see how it does. If that doesn't help, she can do a custom program that uses the Interstim unit itself as a fifth electrode (the lead that's implanted into my spine has four electrodes), which she said helps about 80% of the people who are having trouble with the regular programs. If that doesn't work, then we can look at moving the lead, but it sounds like that probably won't be necessary.
The urologist also asked me what has helped in the past when my interstitial cystitis symptoms flare up, and I mentioned Botox and hydrodistention. We agreed that Botox is a better place to start since it's much less invasive and doesn't involve an operating room and general anesthesia, so I'm scheduled for that tomorrow morning. It's never a walk in the park, but it's nor horrible either. It usually kicks up my symptoms for a couple of days just because of all the irritation of 20+ injections in my bladder wall, but once it settles down it helps a lot.
Overall it was a good visit. I was surprised to get in so quickly for the Botox - that's always taken a couple of weeks to schedule when I've had it before.
The main reason for the visit was to meet with the Interstim rep about the increased pain and urgency I've been having since September. I'd talked to another rep last week, who enabled one more program on my Interstim and had me switch to it. He'd also told me that if that didn't work, I'd need surgery to revise the leads. Fortunately, the rep I saw yesterday said that there are several more things that we can do before having to revise the leads. She suggested cycling through the higher-numbered programs, giving each one at least a week to see how it does. If that doesn't help, she can do a custom program that uses the Interstim unit itself as a fifth electrode (the lead that's implanted into my spine has four electrodes), which she said helps about 80% of the people who are having trouble with the regular programs. If that doesn't work, then we can look at moving the lead, but it sounds like that probably won't be necessary.
The urologist also asked me what has helped in the past when my interstitial cystitis symptoms flare up, and I mentioned Botox and hydrodistention. We agreed that Botox is a better place to start since it's much less invasive and doesn't involve an operating room and general anesthesia, so I'm scheduled for that tomorrow morning. It's never a walk in the park, but it's nor horrible either. It usually kicks up my symptoms for a couple of days just because of all the irritation of 20+ injections in my bladder wall, but once it settles down it helps a lot.
Overall it was a good visit. I was surprised to get in so quickly for the Botox - that's always taken a couple of weeks to schedule when I've had it before.
