Hello,

I have been reading posts on this group for several weeks now, in
order to help my husband make better medical decisions. (I'm the
research person around here, which I'm glad to do for him, since he
now has trouble staying in a sitting position at the computer due to
an indwelling catheter they put in on March 24.)

Here's a precis of his situation:

He has been blocked from passing urine for about five years now, and
we did not have any insurance, so we had to wait till he turned 62 in
order to qualify for Medi-cal and Medicare--thus he just had to handle
things his own way. He would push on his abdomen to urinate and for a
long time he had no bad symptoms.

Initially, about nine years ago, he got a prostate infection, and we
could hardly get rid of it before another infection would come again.
This went on for a couple of years, when we caught on that he had to
stay on the antibiotics longer. We spent cash ordering Cipro online,
and the next time an infection arose, we kept him on for three weeks
instead of the ten days they kept him on at the hospital outpatient
clinic ( which he could go to for free). That seemed to do it, as the
infection did not come back for several years. Plus he started taking
saw palmetto, but could not urinate on his own from then on.

Just last month he got another infection, and this time his blood
pressure soared really high and he was close to total lock-up. So
after the infection was over, we went to the Veteran's Clinic and they
catheterized him and put him on Doxazosin. They said he had BPH and
his bladder was very stretched out of shape. The Doxazosin made his
blood pressure get dangerously low, plus we figured it couldn't be
helping his bladder contract back to normal size, so he just stopped
taking it after a few days. He did very well with the catheter for
about two weeks--only occasional spurts of blood if he bent over or
squatted down the wrong way. And we could tell the bladder was slowly
shrinking back--his abdomen no longer protruded, and got slowly
flatter and flatter. We couldn't figure out why they gave him the
Doxazosin, since it was so crucial that his bladder regain its tone.

We went back to the clinic today, but they said they would not do the
flow test because he had not taken the drug, and they gave him Flomax.
These alpha blockers do not seem to be the right thing for him at all.
First, as I said, it is crucial that his badly stretched out bladder
regain its tone; second, they dangerously lower his blood pressure;
and third, he wasn't just retaining urine, he was completely blocked
for a long time.

We feel surgery is the only viable option. We're trying to communicate
this to them. We had hoped for PVP, but they said the Vet hospital
hasn't OK'd that in California yet. We would go to any doctor that
would do it. We live in Humboldt County (Northern California). But he
says he will even go through TURP if he has to.
We do not want the problem to drag on while taken questionable drugs.
We want to solve the problem in the best possible way.

Sorry for this long post, but the one question I have is--aren't the
alpha blockers sort of foolish to prescribe for someone with a
stretched bladder? And where can a PVP urologist be found?

Many Thanks,

Leila