Last Friday we went downtown to Children’s Memorial Hospital Clark & Demming outpatient building to the Urodynamics office to get the testing done. I was stupid on my last blog post regarding the CMG and V-CUG and mistook the Uro-Flow study written on the papers for a V-CUG which involves X-Ray. The test last Friday did not involve X-Ray. Today’s test involved several sensor’s a urodynamic study catheter, and a specialized pump and computerized monitoring system. The first step was inserting the catheter. This was a quite painful for me due to my spasticity causing my muscles to clamp down on the catheter and make insertion difficult. Then they did an initial sterile urine culture to be sent to the lab. After this they shaved small areas on my legs and butt and stuck electrodes similar to an EKG on those areas. They then hooked the catheter up to the machine using two ports on the catheter. One was for infusing liquid into my bladder, another was for pressure sensors. They infused 1475 ml or 1.47 liters into my bladder before I felt pain, they really want to see the muscles of the bladder contract and react to being full but mine did not for some reason. After that they immediately opened the catheter drain port and let me urinate. Then they repeated the infusion again and got an approximately same result. Overall this test was among some of the most painful tests I have had. But the nurse named Brenda made it a much easier test for me by keeping me emotionally stable throughout, only around the end did I tear from the pain of the catheter being removed, If you have spasticity this test is a curse!

*hugs for Brenda!*