Your experience with the catheter will depend on which procedure you have. I also had a lot of apprehension about the catheter. I had the transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) in September, 2024 at Mayo in Jacksonville. When I awoke from anesthesia post procedure, I had a Foley catheter in place. I was discharged from the hospital with the instructions to return in one week for catheter removal. I had a day bag and a night bag which I used interchangeably. Daily shower with bags disconnected and catheter dangling. One week post op I returned to the clinic to have my catheter removed in the morning. I was told to drink lots of water and return in the afternoon for a bladder function test. During the day I was urinating small amounts but not vacating sufficient amounts of urine. An ultrasound revealed quite a bit of urine still in my bladder. They asked me if I wanted to return in a day or so to see if I was vacating any better. Since I didn't live in the immediate area I asked them to train me in clean intermittent catheterization (CIC). They did this and gave me a box of single use catheters and sent me home. (They also wrote me a prescription for one months worth of catheters.) They asked me to cath myself twice daily, once in the morning after first urination, and once in the evening after last urination and prior to bed, and to keep a log showing amounts remaining. They said anything below 100 ml was good. At first, I was seeing 40-80 ml, but recently I'm seeing 20-50 ml routinely. As an aside, I have been observing little flakes of tissue in the measuring container and was told this is normal for several months after TULSA. I have a video conference with a nurse practitioner in two days, and hopefully they'll suspend this catheter business. My biggest problem now with daily living is when I feel the need to pee, I need to pee right now. So, I have been wearing diapers/pads when I venture to town just in case I leak a bit. Self catheterization is easy to learn and by being the one inserting the tube, you can be as slow and deliberate as you need to avoid discomfort. The main thing is to follow the hand washing protocols to avoid giving yourself an infection.