'Taking ketamine meant I needed a new bladder at SEVENTEEN': Teenager’s horror after drug led to incontinence.

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A 23-year-old man has spoken of his horror at needing a new bladder at just 17 after snorting ketamine.
Chris, from Hampshire, began using drugs when he was just 12 years old and his cannabis use quickly spiralled to hard drug abuse.
He began taking ketamine at 16 and within just a year, he had taken so much that he had caused irreversible damage to his body.

Old before his time: Chris needed a new bladder at just 17 after snorting ketamine excessively. He began using drugs when he was 12, his cannabis use quickly spiralling to hard drugs. He began taking ketamine at 16 and within just a year, he had taken so much that he had caused irreversible damage to his body

Ketamine is known for shrinking and scarring the bladder - and Chris' had shrunk to the size normally seen in a pensioner.
At just 17, he needed to have his bladder removed and a new one made from his bowel - or face a life of incontinence.

 

Chris is one of several young people featured in a BBC3 documentary airing tonight. Called Old Before My Time, presenter Cherry Healey follows people who have ailments typically seen in pensioners because of drug abuse.
Although he has a new bladder, he is by no means free of health problems
Every two weeks he must insert a catheter - a thin, flexible tube - into his belly button and syringe out mucus sitting in his bladder.

Chris went to see a specialist who gave him shocking news - his bladder had shrunk to a fraction of its normal size - and was smaller than a pensioner's. A normal bladder can hold up to 500ml - but Chris' could hold just 5ml

Viewers see the stomach-turning moment where the mucus fills the syringe attached to the tube in his stomach – a far cry from the hard core raver he once was just a few years ago.
Ketamine use in the UK has doubled since 2006 – around the time Chris began taking it.
In the documentary, he explains: ‘I started taking drugs when I was 12 – starting with cannabis and gradually working up to heavier things.
‘When I started taking K I took a gram a night, but before long, as I was taking 10-15g a night – I had a wicked time.’
But within months, his body began to object violently to his drug abuse.

At just 17, he needed to have his bladder removed and a new one made from his bowel - or face a life of incontinence

Although he has a new bowel, he is by no means free of health problems. Every two weeks he has to insert a catheter (a thin, flexible tube) into his belly button and syringe out mucus sitting in his bladder

‘I was at a party, tried to go to the loo and it was really painful. Then a big lump of goo came out – blood, mess… it as horrible.’
Chris went to see a specialist who gave him shocking news – his bladder had shrunk to a fraction of its normal size - and was smaller than a pensioner’s.
A normal bladder can hold up to 500ml – but Chris' could hold just 5ml.
Normally, the bladder wall expands when filled with urine and contracts when emptied.
But extreme ketamine use can cause stiffness and scarring in the bladder walls which means it can only expand to a tenth of its normal size.

While the bowel material can act as a bladder, it is probe to collecting mucus that must be washed out

Viewers see the stomach-turning moment where the mucus fills the syringe attached to the tube in his stomach - a far cry from the hard core raver he once was just a few years ago

To avoid a lifetime of incontinence, Chris had two options. He could have a bag attached to his hip – or have his bladder removed totally and a new one made from his bowel – surgery typical in someone 60 or 70 years of age.

He went for the latter – but must now syringe mucus out of his bladder for every two weeks of his life.
His days of playing rugby are over and he is at risk of dangerous kidney infections.
His new bladder won’t forever, either – he will need it replacing again in 20-30 years.
But ketamine doesn’t just cause physical problems such as Chris' – it can severely affect the brain, too.
The documentary also follows 29-year-old Dave, who has been using ketamine for eight years.
He has noticed a disturbing deterioration in his memory – to the point where he can walk into a room 10 times and not remember why he is there.

The documentary also follows 29-year-old Dave, who has been using ketamine for eight years. He has noticed a disturbing deterioration in his memory - to the point where he can walk into a room 10 times and not remember why he is there

Ketamine blocks receptors in the brain that are important for how we learn and respond to new experiences. These receptors are hugely concentrated in the areas critical for memory – the hippocampus – and people who take a lot of the drug can have memory problems as bad as the early stages of dementia.
Like Chris, Dave began taking ketamine at raves – but he soon became addicted.
In memory tests conducted during the documentary, Dave struggles with basic recall tasks such as naming words that begin with the letter F – or thinking of different types of fruit.
Professor Val Curren explains that ketamine users often have problems recalling names, words and conversations – all common signs of dementia in old people not someone in their twenties.
Dave vows to stop taking the drug – claiming he is now only using it once a month. If he doesn’t, the tests show his memory will only get worse and worse.

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