I had a follow-up visit with my urologist back in December. It was my first visit since he diagnosed me with an OAB back in October and was pretty much a quick, in-and-out deal. The medication he put me on (Vesicare) seems to be helping, although I feel like the improvement has plateaued by now. However, at this visit he mentioned a technique–called Timed Voiding–that’s designed to slowly retrain your bladder to have more appropriate urges. Basically, you choose a manageable time interval, say 1-2 hours, and limit bathroom trips to that interval. I’m not a huge fan of the name…so I prefer to call them my “Pre-scheduled bathroom breaks”. It’s pretty much a mind-over-matter technique, and it really works for me. Love it!
In my original post, I mentioned that I was going to follow-up with my neurologist about any connection between my OAB issue and a potential neurological link. Last month I had a routine follow-up visit with Dr. M, my fabulous neurologist, and I asked her about the OAB link. She was immediately concerned (making me glad I brought it up). Contrary to what my urologist indicated,
Migraine history + bladder issues = Concern about Multiple Sclerosis
Other risk factors I have are:
- Being female (women are twice as likely as men to develop MS)
- My age (most people who develop MS are diagnosed in their 20’s or early 30’s)
- Living in a temperate climate (MS affects approximately 1 in 2,000 people in temperate climates, while those in tropical climates have a 1 in 10,000 chance)
- Being caucasian (whites are at the highest risk for MS)
So, Dr. M ordered an MRI with and without contrast, as well as blood work to check my Vitamin D levels. (Recent studies show that sufficient Vitamin D levels confer some protection against developing MS and/or progression of the disease.)
Needless to say, this is all scary as hell for me. MS is nothing to take lightly, and ever since my visit with Dr. M (which was otherwise positive), I’ve had a nice little knot of panic festering somewhere just above my diaphragm. My gut feeling is that I don’t have MS, but I haven’t been able to shrug off the initial “holy crap, what if…” reaction, either.
My MRI is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I should know in a couple of weeks….
Aspiring Alverna 