Thoughts after a Urodynamic Study

I'm a male, turning 71 in another month, have lived with a spinal curvature -- discovered and corrected in 1960 via the body-cast and spinal fusion methods common at the time.

During my first major hospitalization, I got several enemas, mostly Fleets administered by young male nurses who were as put off by the process as I was, but one evening, I got the traditional warm water and soap from an irrigating can, administered by two mature ladies who didn't seem to mind the job, and got great relief. This led me to experiment as a teenager, and I've used occasional (about once or twice a month) "traditional" enemas ever since, usually before bathing,

I'm now dealing with several of the issues common in later life. (A-fib and moderate hypertension, to cite the primaries.)

During a hospitalization last year, some concerns were raised about urine being retained in my bladder, and I was catheterized, not without minor discomfort, on several occasions; subsequently discovered a UTI (urinary tract infection), successfully treated, but which I attribute to the inexperience of the person wielding the catheter; and another infection, similarly addressed developed after attempts at self-cathing (encouraged by the physicians in charge).

Despite the apparent recovery, I was subjected to a urodynamic study earlier this week; after "gowning up", l was paced in a special chair -- sensors applied to the back of both thighs and a small probe about two inches into my anus. I was then catheterized and several hundred cc's of what I presumed to be either sterile water or normal saline solution injected. When I began to feel a strong need to void, I was allowed to expel, but through an external (condom-type) catheter.

Interestingly enough, the procedure was carried out by a young female LPN, probably in her thirties, During my first hospitalization sixty years ago, the hospital maintained a policy of all rectal treatments to be performed by members of the same sex as the patient (presumably to discourage sexual arousal), but this has apparently been rescinded; possibly due to a better understanding of sexuality -- the three-person "crew" at a colonoscopy two years ago was all-female.

I could see several graphs on a screen (presumably from the sensors), but was not sufficiently focused to ask about them -- will surely do so at a follow-up visit in a week or two.

I had one a couple of years ago for incontinence problems. I was taken to the bathroom adjacent to the procedure room and told to urinate into a uroflow device. I do this all the time at my urology visits. The the nurse took me to a changing room where I was asked to undress and put on a gown. When I I came out the nurse led me down a hall to the procedure room. I sat in a special chair and the nurse attached electrodes got EO side of my thighs and inserted two catheters. The female resident busied herself on the computer as the nurse set up an x-day tube in front of my crotch. The resident explains the procedure and they began to fill my bladder with water and dye. After filling me very full, they asked urinate through the catheter. They took x-rays along the way. After I was dressed, the urologist reviewed the results and told me I had an overactive bladder and prescribed medication. A strange experience over all.