Day: 8 June 2015

Catheter wrangling

Anyone who has had a catheter can tell you that they’re a nuisance. It takes a while to work out a way to sort out all the tubing so that it’s comfortable. In my experience so far I usually figure it out just before I get rid of the catheter.

This time around I’ve figured out that the mesh “sock” thing is the most comfortable for holding the bag but if I’m walking it slips down my leg too easily. The velcro/elastic straps hold it in place better but get uncomfortable after a while.

So here’s my solution for when I’m going to be walking about a bit:Catheter bag with "sock" and strap

That’s the “sock” with the upper strap on top of it, just below my knee and the top of the bag held up by the strap. I don’t use the lower strap, the bag is held close to my leg by the “sock”.

I have the bag on my lower leg because there tends to be more space in my trousers there, rather than up around my thigh. When I first got out of the hospital they gave me a leg bag with tubing cut so short I had to have the bag high up my thing, which also made lying in bed difficult.

 

Fourth week after operation

The suprapubic catheter they put in (held in by stitches) before I was discharged from the hospital is a bit different from the others I’ve had. It has two separate parts: the narrow catheter tube itself (clear silicone) and the adapter to connect it to a drainage bag.

Unfortunately the two parts can be separated quite easily and this occasionally happens if the catheter tubing slips through the adhesive catheter holders. On Tuesday morning it pulled off and I didn’t notice until the urine had soaked through my t-shirt. This time I’ve arranged it so that one catheter holder is holding the adapter and the catheter tube has plenty of slack.

I got an appointment for the cystourethrogram for Wednesday the 10th. After that the doctors will be able to decide whether my urethra has healed and isn’t leaking. If everything is OK the suprapubic catheter will come out and I’ll be back to peeing normally.

I also got an appointment with a nurse on Monday the 8th. There was nothing to say what the appointment was for so I contacted the urology department. It turns out that they’d messed up the scheduling and the nurse was going to remove the suprapubic catheter before the x-ray appointment. They fixed it so that I’d just go up to urology straight after the cystourethrogram.

I’d thought the worst of the night-time erection pain was over, but in the early hours of Thursday I woke up with one and was just dozing off again when I felt three sharp pains inside my penis, along with a strange snapping sensation. I’m assuming it was some of the remaining stitches that had partially dissolved and were snapped by the tension. Since that I don’t get any pain with erections, just a sensation of tightness along the urethra.

Things are starting to look more normal, the scar is fading nicely with just one reddish patch. I can still feel inflammation along the whole repaired stretch of urethra but I had the same after the urethrotomy and that seems to take a couple of months to go away.