Lactulose

Gastroenterology came by and urology did also.

Urology thought for now to hold the course we have been doing.  Cath her ever other day to every 3 days or so (or more often if needed).  No need to switch from clean cathing to sterile cathing and no need to add an ongoing antibiotic.  If she continues to get UTI's then changes will need to be made.  She had 1 UTI in 2006 and 2 in 2007.  So it's pretty suspicious that we start cathing and within a month she has a UTI.  They do not want us to stop cathing though.

Gastroenterology thinks the pain/spasm are probably caused by the lactulose (a med to help her poop).  So we will be switching to something else.  Probably milk of magnesia or magnesium citrate.  Either way we have to check magnesium labs for a while to make sure she isn't getting too much magnesium.  They do not think that the free air would be causing the pain or spasms.

They don't know if the bladder problems and the bowel problems are related or not.

They don't have any definite answers...just more of...try this new plan and we hope we don't see you in another month.

One good tip that I will now do in the future is if her heartrate is elevated (like it has been for at least 2 weeks---but I was blaming on the provera) I need to send in a urine sample.  Which lucky for me I can now do at home myself!  This could probably have prevented the whole hospital stay.  But I didn't know.  It didn't seem like a big deal and I had another explanation for it.