Ditropan and retention

Posted By Susan on April 01, 1998 at 00:39:59:







I was diagnosed with MS 9 years ago, and have had mild problems with urinary urgency for the past 3-4 years. This past December my urologist prescribed Ditropan (2.5 mg 3x/day)for me because the urgency had progessed to the point that I wasn't always making it to the toilet in time. He was a little concerned about prescribing it because I also have about 5-6 ounces retention, and he said the Ditropan can make that worse. I always have a self-cath kit readily available, at his suggestion, but have not had to use it. Fortunately, my retention has remained at 5-6 ounces. However, I have noticed that in the past few weeks I have been having increasing problems with urgency once again. I have an appointment to see my urologist in a couple weeks, but in the meantime I am trying to find the answer to a couple of questions:  (1)assuming that I have to keep increasing the doseage of Ditropan to control the urgency, how will this effect my retention, i.e. is it probably inevitable that I will eventually need to do intermittent self-cath? (2)are there any new drugs available that are as effective as Ditropan in reducing urgency, but that don't cause retention?  Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Susan