I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking) odd.
The doc put me on flomax (1) and that didn't work all that great. He
then went to two which works some better. He left it up to me if I
wanted one every 12 hours or two every 24. I've tried it both ways.
Doesn't make much difference. The odd part is I take two about 8:00 pm
and go to bed around 10:00. The first urge is about 1:00 am and the
stream is very weak and labored, and I have to stand there 2 or 3
minutes before my bladder is empty. The 3:00 am urge is slightly
better, the 5:30 a little better yet, and the get up at 7:30 better yet.
During the day when I'm up and moving around drinking coffee and water)
it's pretty normal. The urgency is often (day and night) but I'm sort
of used to that. My question to the group - are these experiences
similar to others who have had the brachy, and are there any suggestions
to make this a little more tolerable
TIA, RJ
3Putt from CoastalSouth Carolina - 20 Jan 2008 19:01 GMT
> I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking) odd.
> The doc put me on flomax (1) and that didn't work all that great. He
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> to make this a little more tolerable
> TIA, RJ
I relied on Flomax for about 3 months following brachy. But not for the
urgency. More for reducing the sensation of actually peeing. And I only
took one tablet each day. After 12months things seem normal. But......I do
not drink any liquids after 6 pm, and I usually make it through the night.
And...I've learned to lay off carbonated beverages which induce the urge to
pee.
Alan Meyer - 21 Jan 2008 00:30 GMT
> I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking)
> odd.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> to make this a little more tolerable
> TIA, RJ
It took me about 5 months before I was able to urinate at all
without Flomax. At its worst (for about 8 weeks after treatment)
I was getting up 5-7 times every night.
Today, four years after treatment, I'm down to once per
night, sometimes twice - which is pretty typical for a man my
age (61).
So be patient. 90 days is still a little early.
Alan
kh - 21 Jan 2008 01:07 GMT
> I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking) odd.
Sounds pretty normal. As long as you're improving month-over-month,
you're going in the right direction.
-kh
Greg Louis - 21 Jan 2008 11:54 GMT
> I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking) odd.
> The doc put me on flomax (1) and that didn't work all that great. He
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> similar to others who have had the brachy, and are there any suggestions
> to make this a little more tolerable
Sounds entirely familiar to me. The good news is (if your experience
continues to be similar to mine, which seems likely but isn't guaranteed)
that things will improve over the next couple of months. You might need
FloMax for quite a while though. FWIW: I was on 2 FloMax per day till
about 33 months, then on one per day till about the middle of month 37,
then on one every second day for about a month -- and today is my 5th day
with no FloMax at all, 3 years and 2 months after brachy. (During that
initial period of 33 months I twice tried to lower the FloMax intake and
had to go back to two a day both times.)
As for making things more tolerable, well, I found that drinking lots of
fluid (not much coffee or tea and not too much carbonated stuff -- low-
acid apple juice stood me in good stead, though I have to admit I got
pretty tired of it) kept the burning down and the flow reasonably
strong. Urgency was a problem for much of the first year, but after that
it slowly abated. Nocturia was never really bad -- 2 or 3 times nightly
at first, then twice nightly most of the time, and now once or none --
which could be expected at my age (61) anyhow.
I still have some trouble with urgency once in a while, as in: "Hey
buddy, ya got 10 sec to make it to the john!" but with care (pee before
going out, don't do stuff that keeps me away from the plumbing for more
than an hour or so) it's not that big a problem.
Best of luck to you.........

Signature
Greg Louis
Biopsy 2004-06-22 (age 58, Gleason 3+3, T1c, volume 27 cc. Monotherapy,
55 I-125 seeds on 2004-11-16. Lowest PSA yet 0.59 (8 mo); then 0.62,
0.85, 0.75, 1.7, 3.29, 1.29 (whew!) 28.5 mo, 1.41, 0.78, 0.91 at 3 yr.
Gourd Dancer - 22 Jan 2008 01:31 GMT
RJ, sounds normally. I too was given the choive and found that one in the
morning and one after supper worked best. You will do much better if you cut
ALL caffine - cokes and coffee.....
I made my choice not to give up either and April will be my fifth
anniversity on Flomax. Small price to pay for my caffine.
Gourd Dancer
> I'm about 90 days post brachy, and my urination is (to my thinking) odd.
> The doc put me on flomax (1) and that didn't work all that great. He
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> to make this a little more tolerable
> TIA, RJ
Steve Kramer - 22 Jan 2008 09:35 GMT
> RJ, sounds normally. I too was given the choive and found that one in the
> morning and one after supper worked best. You will do much better if you
> cut ALL caffine - cokes and coffee.....
>
> I made my choice not to give up either and April will be my fifth
> anniversity on Flomax. Small price to pay for my caffine.
I concur on both points. Coffee definitely makes a difference. Coffee is
definitely worth the difference.