Urethral stricture decsion Part 2

Warren, mt breathing has done a real down turn in the last 3 weeks. It started 3 saturdays ago when I first woke and couldnt draw a breath. I thought it was all over! I figured the best I could hope for would be struggling like that until I truly went insane. Ill be sure to apprise the surgical team of all my conditions, stressing the key points incase they were glossed over!
Ive never really told the story of what was done to me by VA except to a member by PM. Now as things worsen I find my days nothing but a drudgery just to get thru the day.
With all thats going on, this runaround on the bladder procedure has me frustrated to where I almost wish to ignore it! I do have a consult now, but what kind of changes will I have to go thru to get it finally accomplished. I only pray that if they find some thing they can do the TURB or whatever that it can be fully addressed again at that time rather than drawing it out!
I promise to leve your thread alone now so it doexnt get locked for going oss course. Ill give a followup tues on my consult and what the dr seems like.

Dear Britt:
IV sedation carries some risk of respiratory depression which might be an issue with COPD. What you really need is a consult with an anesthesiologist to discuss your anesthesia options. In addition, anyone doing a procedure on you needs to be prepared to treat any acute respiratory symptoms you have during the procedure regardless of the type of anesthesia you have. That is not an impossible taks, but takes some advanced planning. Your surgeon and anesthesiologist need to talk to your pulmonologist. This is one of those situations where the physicians involved need to remember they're treating patients, not isolated diseases or organs.

Warren. I just realiised how big 22mil would be. Yikes you could drive a truck thru that! It was expanded to 22 something. At any rate ut was enough for the TURB and the cath they used to irragate my bladder. I was told prior that I was not able to handle knee surgery due to my heart condition a general would be risky. I read the pathology report and its said that I was under a general for over an hour and a half. It mentioned that Everything was fine as far as my vitals and I came right out of it in recovery. Now for the last few weeks Ive been stricken with severe COPD/Asthma attacks. About 3 weeks ago I seemed fine but when I went to clear my throat I couldnt draw a breath and thought i would suffocate. I called an ambulance. The breathing treatment had me breathing unaided by the time we got to the E. Now I have a nebulizer. I had another attack 2 days ago. The nebulizer saved me another 911 call.
I am a little worried aboyut going completely under because of this.
Can they do a TURB using IV sedation?
Ill tell you that I have severe hospital related PTSD. I have had numerous dreams of horrible things including my death! Im at a point now that due to all the issues I have going on Im just one step away from freaking out completely.
Im sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread here.
Ill let you know what transpires at my consult on tues

One more thing Britt. I'm not sure what 22 mil is. 22 mm would be 2.2 cm which is almost an inch, which would be enormous for a urethra. Catheter sizes are measured in a different unit such as 22F. F stands for French. I don't know what the actual mm. size is. In any event, the flexible cystoscope is about 16F and would easily fit through a 22F opening.

Britt: Even for men who don't have prostate enlargement the most unpleasant part of the cystoscopy is when the scope goes through the prostate. With prostate enlargement, that part can be even more difficult. That does not mean you have a stricture Britt. A stricture is narrowing with scar tissue.
If you find the procedure too painful to be done with a flexible scope and adequate time for the numbing gel to work, then you need some kind of anesthesia. A TURB cannot be done through a flexible scope and definitely requires anesthesia. If you are too ill for general anesthesia perhaps you can have it done with spinal anesthesia or an epidural. You would have to discuss that with an anesthesiologist.
Pat: I'm not sure if the technique used for dealing with a ureteral stricture can be applied to a urethral stricture. In any event, my urethral stricture has been dilated multiple times and opened 4 times by urethrotomy. After the last urethrotomy, examination showed it to be scarred back down within a month. Any further dilations or urethrotomies are not advisable. It is entirely possible that the increasing difficulty I'm havng wtih the stricture is due to the multiple dilations I've had to accomplish cystoscopies. The next step is a urethral reconstruction. The urologist believes the stricture is short enough to remove the scar tissue and do an end to end anastamosis. This will be done through a perineal incision. If the stricture is longer than it appears on the retrograde urethrogram, then it will require a graft using buccal mucosa.