Question: Thank you for contacting me again.

Several weeks ago I had a multiple hernia operation, which seems to be repairing nicely.
However, on the second day, due to the swelling, my urine stopped flowing, and, after 9 hours, real agony towards the end, a catheter was fitted. I have never had this before.
At age 80, I, like most men of that age, have an enlarged prostate. However the problems have all been under control. I used to get up at night about 3 times, but, I had learned to keep sleepy and always went straight back to sleep. I never NEEDED to urinate urgently, but had found that, to get back to sleep, it was better to have an empty bladder. I have no other urgency problems. Out of habit, I have never, through my adult life tried to let my bladder fill up for many hours, going every 2 or 3 hours. not wishing to have the stretch unnecessarily. I recently took a Bladder Self-Assessment under N H S - U K and scored 2/20.
Usually I have, on average, two orgasms a week, which take a little longer to get going, and, for the last couple of years, I get very little discharge, which tends to be more liquid than in the past.
I have certainly not had any hint, until this crisis, that my prostate is diminishing my urine flow significantly. I've certainly not had any incidents when the flow has been a problem. It is not as strong as when I was younger, but, like most things, this appears normal. My health is good.
My problem, since I''ve had the catheter, is that on two occasions already, after it was extracted, within a couple of days, urine flow did not return to normal. On each occasion an infection developed, and Trimethroprim was prescribed, which I took for the whole course.
I had agony as the bladder expanded and, eventually, another catheter was inserted. It is, to say the least uncomfortable, and makes me move at half speed all day long, for fear of sharp agony if it should catch momentarily. I feel that, between the urethra and the tube the surface is damaged, as I get small amounts of urine, often tinged with blood. This seems the logical reason as to why, when the catheter is taken out, the urine stings.
Is it a good, or bad, thing to take a spoon of bicarbonate of soda to make the urine less acidic and possibly reduce the stinging? I did this on the first occasion, when the stinging was permanent, not just when passing urine, and the stinging, within half an hour, reverted to only sting when urine was passed.
On Monday, I go to the TWOC clinic for another trial without catheter. Have you any advice, as I hate this thing, and its inconvenience and pain etc. I KNOW that it is not my prostate that is causing the problem, but simply the urethra which is clearly damaged by the catheter insertion etc.
I was persuaded to take Tamsulosin to relax the urethra and prostate muscles, but know it relaxes many other similar muscles around the body.
I know that drinking plenty is the main solution, but, when the flow is actually blocked ( twice so far) one only increases the rate at which the bladder reaches its limit ! Any advice, please ?