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How to deal with catheter while recovering after prostate surgery?
I plan to have prostate surgery relatively soon. Onc big concern I have is how to deal with the cathether for 7 to 10 days. I live alone so I am thinking of hiring a private nurse for one hour in the morning , and one hour late afternoon to help me change from night bag to leg bag in the morning, and from day bag to night bag in the afternoon. An experienced nurse will know how to do it in a sanitary way to avoid infection. An alternative I am thinking is always keeping the night bag, which has pluses, but too bulky to drag 24 hours. Any suggestions?
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Thanks for sharing catheter care tips as well as for your recovery update :).
Those are great news and very encouraging. May your recovery continue to be this successful and as fast in the following weeks !
It is interesting that in all articles and care tips I never before encountered advice about tube and bag care - one would expect that part to be a mandatory segment of any post-op care instructions (?!).
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2 ReactionsI found it easier to change bags while standing in the shower. Wash your meatus area good, a little antibiotic cream, also. You'll get used to it in a few days. I was fearful of it being removed, but that was relatively painless.
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3 ReactionsThanks. Very helpful.
Hospital sent me home with an extra stat lock. However, I bought from Amazon a Velcro stat lock instead of the hospital provided glue one. I used isopropyl alcohol to clean the bag (externally) and I did not swap out bags and alcohol wipes to clean the Foley catheter that connects to the bag. Used lidocaine on the tip to avoid any uneasy feeling where catheter came out of the body. These all worked well for me. I drank a lot of water every day (like four 20 oz glass of water) until catheter came out.
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2 ReactionsGood instruction was given along with a couple of Depends at catheter removal. I purchased Depends prior to that and only used 1. I didn't need much absorption. I ended up using various women's pads/liners.
Foley bag info given at time of hospital discharge.
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2 Reactions@soli & @surftohealth88 -- Frankly, at 1 year since surgery I didn't remember much about cleaning the bag. My wife says we definitely followed the hospital instructions for swapping bags and cleaning the used bag and hanging it up to dry. Also, she said that was something she took care of for me, so maybe that's why I don't remember it very well. She didn't remember exactly what she used to clean it but she said the hospital team gave good instructions and gave us a kit. But my wife added using disposable gloves and disinfectant wipes for a bit of extra sterilization. She also made the comment that cleaning the bag was something a patient might need help with since it's a little more physical than just swapping bags, especially during the first few days after surgery. She particularly mentioned that the kit contained a catheter tubing clamp that was useful when swapping bags. I think by "adhesive stat lock" they mean the device to support the tubing so the bag tubing doesn't pull on the catheter. If so, there are 2 types: adhesive or elastic. The kit the hospital gave us had an elastic one and I think the hospital staff threw in an extra. The elastic strap worked real well, but I did notice it tended to slide down during the day so I had to adjust the tension and generally keep an eye on it to make sure it hadn't slid down. But it did work well. Best wishes.
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4 ReactionsThanks everybody for extra info < 3 ! : )))
My shopping list is getting nicely put together now :).
Retiredguy - I like the idea of using gloves and alcohol for tube and bag cleaning , I was planning to do that myself. I work with disposable gloves in kitchen also, ahahahaa, "professional deformation" XP , ha ha ha, once you work with microbes there is "no way back" ;). That is why I was so surprised that hygienic part of taking care of tubing and bags was rarely mentioned. I understand that a hospital gives instructions on the day of discharge but at that point most patients are dazed with all things that happened to them and I am certain that tube cleaning is the last thing that they will remember in detail or will have energy to study first day at home.
I am so glad that I found out about it in advance and that I have this wonderful forum with even more wonderful people who are always eager to help and know so much about everything. < 3
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1 ReactionThanks for the details and for the info about minor incontinence :), that is very encouraging to hear.
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1 ReactionThanks for the info about different kinds of stat locks 🙂 and about alcohol and for lidocaine tip !
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1 ReactionThere is a lot of good information about cathether care on Youtube from reputable medical institutions. One is from John Hopkins Urology called Cathether Care for Men. It has excellent tips on cleaning the tube ends, cleaning and lubricating the tip of the penis etc. There is aother good video I have viewed a couple of time by Cone Health. It is entitled "Robotc Prostatectomy Video Series #4 : Cathether care. Some of the nurse's advice has to be adapted to a situation where the patient is doing the cleaning instead of someone helping the patient.
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