I thought my antibiotic had lost its efficacy and my struvite (bladder crystals) were back. I was freaking out. I notices s light reduction in flow rate, and when I squeezed along the length of the catheter, I could feel sediment inside of it. This was 10AM Friday. I tried to get an emergency cath swap appointment, but there was nothing available Friday or Saturday AM (when they see crisis-only patients.) This is the first time I've not been able to get a same-day appointment. Although concerning, it actually worked out for the better. Later that morning a slug of fine-grained sediment flushed out of the thing. Then later that afternoon I had the same thing. Then it occurred to me that this was a familiar site. When I first moved here I was drinking my well water without having had it analyzed yet. Not long afterwards I developed these sand-like stones (after having been stone-free for 10+ years.) As it turns out, I have hard water, and the dissolved minerals got turned into these weird fine stones. As soon as I stopped drinking my tap water, the sand-stones went away. When I retired I installed a softener, and have been drinking tons of the softened well water (1 gallon/day) every day for the past 10 years. So I checked the softener and it had stopped working (see Rant here.) For some period of time I've been drinking unsoftened water again. I bought some bottled water, got the softener running again today, and have not had another episode. *sigh*
I'm due for a colonoscopy. I just got word that because I have a supra-pubic catheter, they will not do it in the office. I gotta have it done in a hospital setting. I have no idea why...it takes one organ out of the "won't wake up" equation.
That usually means you will need someone to transport you back home afterwards, so they have to stay and wait while you have the procedure done. It has been a long time since i had something like that, but I think they tell you not to drive or buy anything for a day afterwards because of the medication.
Yeh, I'm taking my neighbor to his sometime next month, and he's driving me to mine. We're both on the Five Year Plan.
My colonoscopy has be rescheduled twice the past two years, due to transportation arrangements not being reliable for me at those times. I hope to get mine done later this year..
Mine will be 18 months late if the March 22025 date holds true. I'm not horribly worried. This will be my third one. I went WAY over 5 years between #1 and #2. As you said, transportation can be a problem for many of us.
I am not in a happy place. It seems that the gentamicin instillation is loosing its effectiveness...the struvite sediment has returned. I went to the closest ER last night thinking I could negotiate a catheter swap before the thing hard plugs, and they don't have after-hours staff that can swap a supra-pubic catheter. The next-closest ER (larger hospital) has urology personnel on staff all night. I just came home. This is not good. I've been cathed so long that when I've done tests where I have to retain urine, a mere 230 ml puts me on the floor in agony (the average bladder's capacity is 1,000ml.) If this thing plugs I don't know that I can make it to the ER, much less sit there for hours. The remaining solution is "self-catheterization." But passing 4,000ml a day and being in agony at 230ml is gonna be a nightmare on top of a nightmare. The kidney they did a laser lithotripsy on is still not right. Or more to the point, when I drank my unsoftened water, it's producing sediment (that's what I thought was going on before I realized it was the struvite.) When that kidney aches, I know that sediment is on the way. Now it's a steady ache. I'm beginning to feel as though it's still infected, but have no real way to test it. I got chills but no fever. (And I wonder if the hard water sediment has caused the struvite in some way.) This crap always hits on the weekend. ALWAYS. I'm gonna try to get an emergency cath swap at the urologist tomorrow, if it lasts the night. I'm scheduled for one on Wednesday. Dunno what my next step is gonna be.
Do you have the stuff at home that would allow you to self-cath in an emergency like this @John Brunner? It might be a good practice to have the stuff on hand. I know you don't want to do it as general practice, but in an emergency it might be handy.
I was thinking the same thing, Don. I looked online but need to talk with the nurses to sift through the options.