If it has been going on for some time, just use the caths when you are unable to urinate properly. You may have lost some of the ability to know when your bladder is full. If that is so, you will either have to learn again, or cath on a schedule until the sensation returns. Mine is a ling story that I don't want to relate here. Suffice it to say, it became a tolerable thing after a while, althogh I dreaded it at the beginning. Consider the alternatives.
Thank you very much, Susan. I really appreciate the links and the support. There are a couple that look long-term useful so I bookmarked them. Interesting that you and I both found good info on England's NHS site. I read that one blog on "Chronic Illness Bloggers" and the woman who wrote it "Rachael" looks so very young to be having all of those issues. There are times that I feel like a whiny kid about this. It's not the end of the world. I'm ahead of this enough that we're not talking a permanent indwelling catheter. I'm in otherwise good health (and I've known folks literally half my age who have been very unfortunate.) I just need to bite the bullet (maybe literally) and work through this. The important things in the rest of my life are fine.
@John Brunner So sorry to hear your having this problem. I have no advice other than to keep us posted and feel free to kick and scream as needed on here
Thanks, Gloria. I think the ability to display my tantrums is probably gonna help nudge me in the direction I need to go.
I had this precedure once. Not a self inducing proceduree but done to me by doctor and nurse. I don't know if I could do that to myself or not because it hurt like the dickens. Butreading about others doing it might help me. Once I could understand but so many times. Oh my.
I guess I should consider myself lucky. "Starting out" they are recommending once a day, but I suspect they are trying to build me up to more often. There are people who have been doing this to themselves 4x a day or more for years...and have a lifetime of it to look forward to. (Medicare reimburses up to 200 intermittent catheters per month, which is between 6 and 7 per day.) At least (for now) I can partially empty without intervention...it's not as though I am 100% dependent upon this. That's what we're trying to avoid. From what I've read so far, the comfort level and the acceptance level of having to do this is all over the place. So at least I'm not the only one who struggles with the thought of it. And you and I are the same: reading about others doing it helps.
Good luck,John. Now I'm going to do some unsolicited speculation. I think, would almost bet this gets easier the more4e its done. Sometime with out knowing things get easier either because the channel gets used to it or we slowly find a better way to do it, a more comfortable way. Bless you, kind Sir.
Once daily may be enough. They may be wanting to ensure your bladder is empty at least once daily. Don't know, just sayin'.... Don't get dependent on them catheters, though, as that means carrying them around with you all the time. Even a TURP is better than that. Cathing yourself in a public restroom is NOT a good idea, for sanitary reasons if for no other.
The general medical consensus seems to be that my prostate is not the problem. The doctor who removed a bladder stone said "I looked around while I was up there and saw nothing with your prostate that required any procedure." Or words to that effect. He also said it was "small," but my understanding that size has nothing to do with BPH. As an aside, I don't know how "BPH" got on my record. I don't know if it was discreet diagnosis or if it was an assumption based upon Age+Gender+Symptoms. The guy who did the urodynamics said that the prostate might be causing 2% of my voiding problem. The other 98% are due to poor bladder muscles. Again, this is computed by comparing Bladder Pressure and Flow/Output. Flow/Output seems to be appropriate for Bladder Pressure (meaning no significant restrictions), it's just that Bladder Pressure is insufficient. This test is supposed to be the Gold Standard for diagnosing this stuff. It's given to people after they've had procedures to test success/failure. As I read other people's experiences on forums, it seems that there can be recovery of bladder muscle function after a period of manually keeping it empty, especially when it's a case of "can pee, just not fully empty." And I agree about getting dependent. -The LPN I've been seeing (I punted two doctors) said to cath once a day at bedtime. -The "Self-cath Teaching Nurse" there looked at how much I retain and said daily was way insufficient. -The urodynamics doctor said "Once a day is a good place to start." So who knows. I'm not worried about frequency at this point, since I've not yet done it once. What a nightmare.
@John Brunner Story time. 2000 miles from home, staying at the Tropicana in Laughlin, June 5, 2009, ready for a good night's sleep after a wonderful meal and two beers, I stood in front of the stool a mighty long time and could not produce a single drop! Mentioned it to my wife, we went to sleep, 1:00 AM I woke up needing to go; same deal, I had her call the desk, find out where the nearest ER was, and how to get to it. The ER tried, several nurses and a doctor, to insert a catheter; it hurt like hell, only went in a very short distance, perhaps 3 inches by the feel of it. Doctor announced they wanted me to stay until their urologist came in at 6:00 AM. I told him no way can I wait several more hours. Asked him to get the cath. in there. He asked if I really wanted that, I answered affirmative, he got it in. Hurt like an SOB. Bladder drained quickly, they strapped a plastic bag to my leg, knowing we were scheduled to leave for home that morning. He told me to have my regular doctor remove the cath. in a week; I had of course to empty the bag...... What did it feel like walking around with this foreign thing intruding? Much better than not being able to pee! Plan was, and we followed it, to pick up my nephew Mike in Flagstaff, from which he would ride home with us and meet up with the other nephew who would drive them both to Chicago, to see kin. I studied up on the use of catheters as best I could, learning that the semi-permanent design had a tiny "balloon" built in just behind the tip, which prevents the cath. from slipping out, or being pulled out by an irate patient. The cath. has two tubes within it, one to inflate the balloon, which is done with a syringe, a certain amount of air, like 5cc or something. By Friday, I was confident I could release the air from the balloon, and did so, slipping the cath. out uneventfully. Next regular doctor visit, I told him the story. He related an incident he had seen where a patient angrily yanked his cath. out, blood was everywhere, destroyed the bladder sphincter, etc. Surprisingly, I have urinated normally since then, 10+ years, no cath., no drugs, no trouble. Original obstruction remains unknown. My wife thought I was nuts removing it myself, but she's used to my, er.......unusual proclivities. The sensations experienced by catheterization are varied. Some pain at first, but completely tolerable. Maybe it's just me; I thought after all, it felt kind of nice, rather than horrible. Here's a pic showing the tiny balloon:
@Frank Sanoica So you've not had kidney stones, huh? I'm sure that's what most folks thought could have been blocking you like that. When you can't pee, you'll pretty much do anything to get relief. I had a similar thing happen to me, but it was a kidney stone blocking things. I wore one of those (Foley catheter) for a week. I passed the stone the evening the doctor removed the catheter. The doctor swore it could not have been a kidney stone causing the issue. When I passed it, I stuck the thing in an envelope and mailed it to him. In the doc's defense, it was the smoothest, most uniform shaped stone I ever passed. But some doctors have a way of insisting that we have no idea what's going on with our own bodies.
I have known of some guys who actually like the leg bags and Foleys, as they don't have to worry about bathroom visits. The standard Foleys have 5 cc bags, but there are 10 cc and even 25 cc bags (I think) for difficult and non-compliant patients. There are also catheters with an irrigation capability (third tube) that allows obstructions to be washed out. Please don't remove any of the Foleys without deflating the bag, which, in my experience, usually are filled with saline.