The Foundation
Cystoscopy sounds like a complicated process, but understanding the main principles of why it is used helps wrapping your mind around it. People who experience frequent pain or urination issues throughout the day are often recommended to getting a cystoscopy done to check their internal bladder health. This way, the doctor can check for any types of abnormalities less intrusively within the hospital. Thinking about getting a cystoscopy can be confusing at first, as many technical definitions are needed to describe how it interacts and measures health within our bodies. Luckily, simplifying all the complicated terms into content that is easier to process for people who are unfamiliar with how it works can hopefully help them decide on going through with it or not.
Cystoscopy Basics
Getting a cystoscopy done involves a doctor utilizing a cystoscope, or a thin plastic tube that has a camera and small illuminating light attached to its tail end. To initiate the process, a doctor will slowly draw the tube through the patient’s urethra (the part of our body that helps move urine out while we go to the bathroom) to reach the bladder. Then, the inside of the bladder is projected from the camera to a bright computer screen and magnified for fine details to be displayed so the interior can be projected onto a bright computer screen. The image is enlarged by hundreds of times so doctors can exactly pinpoint the problem. While a cystoscopy is relatively safe to get done, there is still some minor risk for physical infection, minor complications with any anesthesia needed to be given to the patient, and prolonged bleeding in the bladder that could occur. Before going through the process, be sure to do a significant amount research on how a cystoscopy should be prepared for and different risks that come with it depending on your demographic. A patient could also see some scar tissue that can develop afterwards that leads to a form of stricture in the urethra (which prevents any easy urination), some swelling within the bladder interior, and frequent inability to properly urinate like before.
Receiving Recovery
After getting a cystoscopy, the bladder and surrounding areas can recover relatively well. After doctors instruct you to clean up and empty your bladder at the hospital after the procedure, you can go home without having to worry that the anesthesia will stay in your body for a long time. In most cases, it wears off in a short amount of time and doesn’t cause any major health issues. After taking things easy for a day, people are safe to return to their normal daily activities like going to work, exercising outside or at the gym, or running daily errands. Some people might experience a stinging feeling after a cystoscopy when peeing, more frequent urination, and urine being tinted a more pink color for a short time. While these effects are uncomfortable at first, they all eventually disappear within a few days. A patient who reminds himself to drink more water after getting the procedure will also help pick up the pace of the recovery process as well. Additionally, taking over the counter painkillers such as paracetamol also helps to reduce any type of stinging tor inflammation that may come up.
Although there aren’t that many direct surgical alternatives to getting a cystoscopy, you could be guided by your doctor to get a less intensive X-ray or ultrasound screening instead. These can be done before going through with a cystoscopy, and are strong in showing any potential stones or tumors that could be growing in the area. However, they aren’t as accurate and can’t show active infections deep inside the body as well as a cystoscopy. So, seeing the inside situation as efficiently as possible can help your doctor accurately diagnose your case and recommend the best treatment.
Stress Less
While doctors don’t have many horror stories about cystoscopies, there are patients on the web who aim to share negative stories from fluke accidents that have occurred throughout their own personal history. Even if it sounds terrible to experience, don’t feel anxious because every person’s experience will be different. The factors that contributed to their issues could have stemmed from anything like weak preparation, an ill-advised doctor, a technical malfunction, or other personal health issues that came up. Many health forums are out there to help patients feel more mentally relaxed before beginning a cystoscopy. The Internet can help you learn more about the process, from what to anticipate in the room, taking care after the procedure, and the best painkillers and food to ingest. Hospitals want you to feel completely ready before starting and ending the process. Remember, before signing up to go through any major medical procedure, set aside enough time in your busy schedule to do thorough searching about it, why you need it, and how to best prepare for it beforehand.
