Morphine increasing ability to urinate?

Okay this is very strange.... When Paul was on morphine before (during all the hospital and surgery hell) he regained his ability to urinate some. We wondered if this was actually helping but never really thought much about it.

He then went off it and on other pain meds thinking his nausea was from that, and again was unable to urinate and back to cath all the time....

Last night he decided to try it again for some reason and voila.... he can pee again!! He says so far no nausea associated with it, just the normal every day nausea he has been having....

Any thoughts or ideas or knowledge on this?

Back when I was going through all those severe stricture issues, my steady use of morphine, fentanyl, and other opioids, never had any effect on my ability or lack of ability to urinate, I am not a pharmacist, but would think its unlikely that there is a direct connection. But who knows, with some of the weirdness connected to the wonderful world of PC, anything is possible. Good question to put to his doctor.

Billy Bob, I am unable to read that link...

There really seems to be a direct relation as only when he has taken it has he had the ability to urinate at all, which is very infrequent.

He is a strange one with pain meds, even the caine family - palliative care docs think he has genetic differences in his receptors which I have been reading a little about and can affect a lot more than just pain meds. He just has this natural high resistance to any of them which is very unfortunate for him. You should have seen how much lidocaine it took to cut out the ingrown sutures he had... Was terrible...

Also, the Urologist seemed to think the cancer was affecting his nerves from his spine to his bladder, as there was definitely no blockage or other abnormality during the cysto he had in the very beginning(which was what led them to go straight to the biopsies and skip a few steps).

He hasn't taken it since and he is having to cath again... We will watch for this next time he takes a dose for sure.

I am thinking it may be that the nerve involvement is making the spincter not relax, but the morphine is somehow acting on the channels and opening the gates so to speak to allow them to relax but could be totally wrong. Also wondering why the other pain meds he takes wouldn't do this.

I would be curious about the oxybutynin on him, as I have taken this (and have a supply on hand) for bladder spasms and possibly its like a chronic spasm mode he is in? Maybe that is why he gets so much pain and discomfort.

On an aside, I was born with spinal deformity (mild spina bifida occulta) which affects these same nerves. I use accessory muscles to urinate and suffer all types of incontinence as well as constant state of retention. Last year I had my detrusor muscle botoxed which fixed both my painful spasms as well as every type of incontinence I had for a few months. I will have this again but not a priority, I can live with this for now.

Paul gets that nausea too, which is why he switches them up, trying to get the best pain relief with the least nausea. He has near constant nausea which is made worse by meds.