www.incontinentsupport.org

I had a bad day. I went to bed about 6:30AM (I work nights). I woke up dry, which I almost never do. I went through my normal routine and I couldn't force my bladder to empty. About the 9 hour mark with no urination I called my Urology Nurse and told her about it. She said call my doctor or go to the ER if it doesn't happen soon. My doctor told me to take a hot shower and see it the warm water helped. The shower gave me bad cramps in my lower abdomen. I called the Urology Nurse back and she said head to the ER soon.

I got to the ER at the 11 hour mark of no voiding. I was admitted right away. They did a bladder scan and told me I had about 750 ml of urine in my bladder. The nurse pushed on my bladder and nothing happened. The doctor on duty said to put a Foley catheter in me. Ouch! I have to leave the Foley in place until my urology appointment late next week.

A few questions for anyone who has had a Foley.

When does the burning stop?
What do I need to be careful of?
How much cranberry juice per day?
Should I use vinegar or bleach for cleaning the bags?
Night bag on the floor or make a hanger for it? (I have dogs that are well behaved)
What are the early signs of infection to watch out for and what do I do about it to stop it?

Thank you.

Doug

_________________
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

Sorry to hear of your problems.

1. DO NOT disconnect the leg bag except to change it and then put on a sterile one. You can leave the bag in place for a week and things should be fine.

2. Connect the larger night bag to the base of the leg bag and DO NOT replace the leg bad with the night bag. Place the night bag below the level of the leg bag so urine can drain into it. The floor is fine.

The soreness should stop in a few days as it is due to the rubbing of the insides of the passages. You may well get an e coli infection which will show itself as cloudy and foul smelling urine. of course the output may be a bit cloudy anyway caused by dead cells etc - something you don't notice normally.

Everyone says cranberry juice is the stuff to drink but you have to watch the packets - some have less juice in than others. Over in the UK Ocean Spray is about the best. I think people drink 200ml a day to help. The important thing is to drink, drink, drink oh, and drink. Water, tea, coffee, beer - anything, but drink lots until the urine in nearly colourless. That is best way to keep infections at bay. With a big flow of urine they don't get a chance to do anything.

Thanks wheels. I will give the tandem bag idea a try tonight if I can get them tied together by the tubing connector. I think I'm going to put the night bag into the lower drawer near the foot of my bed. I just have to remember that I'm connected to the dresser before I get up in the morning.

I always drink enough for my urine to be pretty clear. I take a multi-vitamin that turns it almost florescent yellow most of the day so it doesn't always look very clear.

_________________
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

Doug,

I think Wheels covered the foley cath. Not a fun experience. I had one for the better part of a week many years ago and it was an experience I won't soon forget. The burning does get better after a day or two. I ended up with a tract infection but was told it had nothing to do with the foley?????? My mother had MS and had a foley for many years. She did really well on it but did suffer infections now and then. Just don't forget you are hooked up to the night stand.

Not much to add here that has not been covered. I personally have only had a foley put in for short time, along with the testing one catheter they use for the Urodynamics tests without the balloon on the end, which is much smaller in diameter, thankfully. The cyctoscope procedure was bad enough, and that was fairly quick, but not plesent afterwards... Drink as much as you feel you need to, and look for cloudiness, and fever for the signs of infection, hope it comes out soon, and don't overdo it activity-wise, just take it as easy as possible. The more you move around, the more irritated the uretheral lining gets, making it worse... I am sure with the history of prostate issues I have had, that one will be my little buddy in the future, just don't want one any time soon... take care, Puffy

Thanks for the replies and advice. The "tandem-bag" advice worked great last night. The ends were the same hard plastic so they could not attach together. I took a short piece of surgical tubing and taped it to the drain valve on the leg bag. That gave me the proper junction to hook the night bag into. I had over 1000ml when I woke. The leg bag alone would not have been enough. I slept fairly well for about 5 hours. No leaks. If I did I would just wash the sheets since the bed has a waterproof barrier covering it.

I am not as sore today as yesterday. If tomorrow is better I will be in pretty good shape to deal with the cath. Today went pretty rough because I didn't eat breakfast so the Gabapentin took a toll on me. I almost collapsed in Walmart a couple times. An hour after I got some food in me I felt much better. It was morphine time after I got home with groceries. Tomorrow I have a few things to do that will probably wear me out but need to be done.

Tomorrow night I will resign myself to movies and relaxing.

_________________
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

Glad you are doing so well, Doug. These things take a bit of getting used to. It does get easier.

So far as the night-time linkage of the bags, the bags we get in the UK have a rubber tube on the end of the outlet of the leg bag which allows the night bag to be pushed in to connect. It might be worth asking if such bags exist in your country - I'm sure they do.

How long does it take the bleeding and severe (bring you to your knees) pain to stop?

I am passing pink to medium red urine into the bag today. I have also had 4 bouts of severe pain in my urethra a few inches inside the opening. The kind that may me want to chop it off. It has not been a fun day.

_________________
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

Hey Seattledoug, that does not at all sound like fun... any sign of bleeding and I would be heading back to the E.R. to have that checked out. Some sensetive tissue up inside there, something may be torn, or just super irritated, but I would have it looked at ASAP... I thought today was going to be a take it easy day and watch movies? Keep us posted, Puffy

I go along with Puffy Pants. There is a significant possibility that the blood in the urine is mechanically caused - catheter rubbing on the wall of the bladder - but it could also be secondary to an infection and a quick test can identify the cause and prescribe any necessary treatment. oddly, the most usual cause is e-coli and a very old drug, a sulphonamide Trimethoprim, is very successful in these cases. (Old = cheap by the way!)

The soreness and the bleeding would not be helped by being very active so you may need to slow down a bit and rest in order to get the soreness to abate.