Thanks indecline, you are right, I can't get anything like hydro from the urologists on my HMO list. Before my job switched to a list of HMOs I had a urologist that prescribed hydro on a regular basis for my problems. He is the most compasionate doctor that I have ever seen and that is really sad to say actually. If I were to continue to see him now it would cost me about $500 per visit and I'd need to go every 6 months for maintenance. I will do that if it gets really bad. I have gone back to him twice since I've been in the HMO and had to pay full price out of pocket so I will do it again if it gets bad enough.

My problems are a too small urethra that needs to be dialated. If allowed to contine to get smaller and smaller (which is what has happend since I've been on the HMO) then I develop the problems of blood in urine and very painful urination, a need to constantly push, constant pain in the urethral area which hydro does help with and extremely painful bladder spasms. If you've never had a bladder spasm (which none of these urologist have) then you cannot imagine how painful they are. It feels like someone ramming a knief up my rectum. Hydro barely helps with that but soma really does help which I used to also get from my old urologist but can no longer get from all of these other ones that I have seen. All these urologists will give me is Detrol. Detrol does help in the long run but I need something right then when the spasm occurs. I do not have UTIs because I take an antibiotic every day as a bacterial suppressant. Every time they do a urinalisis, it comes up clean except for the blood.

By the time that I finally found a urologist on the list that would actually perform the dialation, I was so tight that the pain and blood lasted for weeks. He also perfomed a cysto and they now have it set up so that the patient can see what the doctor sees on a tv. It showed a mass of grey build up on my bladder wall and red swollen polyps all over it. My old urologist used to give me a bladder irrigation with medication in it that killed any bacteria on the bladder wall and removed some of the grey build up which in turn made the polyps smaller/less inflamed. I have yet to find a urologist who will do that for me. They say that it is old school and no one does it anymore. But, it helped me and what they are doing is not but hey what do I know right?

I am also a stone former and pass stones every once in a while. My old doctor made hydro available to me for that reason as well. Even though hydro barely touches the pain of passing a stone at least it is better than nothing at all.

I have never heard that hydro would make the pain worse, that is a new one to me. Why haven't any of these urologists told me that when I've asked for hydro and they've refused without saying why?

As for the dye meds like AZO, they make me puke. I've tried them all, even on a full stomach they make me really ill. Also, they do nothing for the urinary or urethral pain or bladder spasms, perhaps because it isn't a UTI? I don't know why they don't work for me.