Learn Spanish (Latin America): Mi vejiga está llena y llevo tres horas sin orinar. - My bladder is full and I haven't peed in three hours.

Mi vejiga está llena y llevo tres horas sin orinar.

My bladder is full and I haven't peed in three hours.

Breakdown of Mi vejiga está llena y llevo tres horas sin orinar.

and

estar

to be (location/state)

la hora

hour

Questions & Answers about Mi vejiga está llena y llevo tres horas sin orinar.

Why use llevo tres horas sin orinar instead of a translation like no he orinado por tres horas?

While no he orinado por tres horas is grammatically correct, the structure llevar + time expression + sin + infinitive is the most natural, idiomatic way in Spanish to express how long it has been since you last did something. It emphasizes the unbroken duration of not doing the action up to the present moment.

Can I use the preposition en to translate 'in three hours', like sin orinar en tres horas?

It is better to avoid it here. In Spanish, using en with a time frame often points to the future, like saying you will do something three hours from now. The llevar construction safely avoids this confusion because the time duration is attached directly to the verb llevar.

Could I use the reflexive verb orinarme here instead of orinar?

Be careful with that! Orinar means to urinate normally. If you make it reflexive (orinarse), it changes the meaning to peeing yourself or having an accident. Since the speaker is still holding it, you definitely want the non-reflexive orinar.

As a quick refresher, why do we use está instead of es for llena?