Life's A Journey: September 2018

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Medtronic Bladder Stim

On the 17th of July I had a Metronic Bladder Stim placed inside me. It was because of damage done due to Mesh. The brain and bladder were no longer communicating. So urinary continence was to the point of choosing to wear a diaper or proceed to the trial for the bladder stim. It is working fine.

Two weeks earlier I had to do a trial to where the device and leads were placed on top of the skin. I was not able to shower but I did use baby wipes and dry shampoo to get by. During that time I had to do a void diary. I met the doctor at the Same Day Surgical Center in the Hospital. She looked over the void diary and decided it indicated that the bladder stim would help me. So I went into surgery where the doctor proceeded to place the device inside me that very day. After the surgery I had to do another void diary so the doctor could determine if it needed adjusting or not.

There are a lot of things to be considered for such a surgery. One is you must take the remote with you everywhere so you can adjust it if need be. Second, no more MRI's but you can have CT's, nor Lithotripsy nor TENS unit,nor heat to that area, nor anything that stimulates the body with wires or shocks. No long stretches or you can pull the wire out. Be careful around Microwaves too.

It's now been a little over 2 months and I have only had to make a few adjustments in the beginning. I finally can sleep again on my back. At first the metal unit one could feel the top of it popping out a bit so I had to sleep on my opposing side and not the side it is on nor my back. But as time went by it seems to now have settled into place therefore allowing me to sleep on either side or my back.

I was told that when the inner battery needed replacing it would be a new surgery as you can't just change the battery. However, most of the times the batteries last between 5-10 yrs.