Hi Again

Has anyone out here ever heard of spinal cord compression being the
cause of frequent urination, rather than an enlarged prostate or
whatever the hell causes overactive bladder?

Here's why I'm asking.....

I've had frequent urination problems since my late 40s.
I'm 66 now.
So my family MD had me try Flomax which didn't help the symptoms and
caused some sexual side effects that are a drag.
Eventually he referred me to a urologist.
This guy had me try every other alpha-blocker on the market with the
same results.
Then he put me on Avodart to shrink then prostate too, but I didn't stay
on it long enough the first time - again because of sexual side effects. Eventually I came to realize that I needed to be on Avodart for at least
a few months before seeing any symptomatic relief.
So I went back on it.
Then, I started noticing the Cialis ads on TV stating that it was being
used for BPH symptoms too, so I asked for a prescription.
Over several years it seems to help for a while and then it stops
helping and then it starts again.
But I've stayed on it because it mitigates the sexual side effects of
the Avodart.
At some point, the Avodart did seem to help reduce my symptoms, but its effectivness seems to come and go.

So, at one point about 3 years ago I think now, I was on these BPH drugs
but I was still waking up every 1.5 hours to pee.
I freaked out and demanded a Turp or some other surgical intervention.
So my uro sent me for a cystoscopy.
The attending urologist said there was nothing wrong with me or my bladder.
I voided all the pee they sent down my penis.
At this point both he and my uro started calling my condition overactive bladder and my uro put me on Myrbetriq which does seem to help.
The other uro had me on some dangerous OAB drug that forget the name of
right now.
Nasty stuff.
Nowadays I wake up about every 2.5 hours.
After the mild success with the Myrbetriq I wanted to see if the Avodart
was even helping at all, so I went off of it for a few months, but my
symptoms got worse again so I went back on.

My uro has never given me an exact size of my prostate but he always
tells me that it's not enlarged much at all anyway.
So from my perspective he's treating me without an accurate diagnosis
and is just throwing stuff at me to see if it works.
He says the next thing to try is Botox injections for god's sake.

So....
I've also been having issues with symptoms similar to carpal tunnel
syndrome in both my hands.
But extensive testing has shown the the major issues are not in my
wrists but in my neck.
I have spinal cord compression in the C3 thru C5 disks I believe.
This is not compression of the nerves or the nerve roots coming out of
the vertebrae.
It's the spinal cord itself being compressing inside the spinal cord
canal due to arthritis in the disks.
So I'm scheduled for neck surgery, a cervical laminectomy with fusion operation, in mid December.

And I've heard that spinal cord compression, even that high up the
spinal cord, can cause frequent urination.
I just thought this might be a good place to ask if anyone knows
anything about this.
My surgeon just says "maybe".

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