Any tips for catheter removal day ? : )
Thursday is catheter removal day : ) !
Any tips for dos and don'ts would be very appreciated 😊
PS: He will bring Depends underwear to wear back home
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I just saw this...3-days after you had your catheter removed. I hope it went well. For the sake of others, I offer a few tips for best planning:
1. Bring one or two diapers (if you wear boxer shorts) or "pads" (if you wear jockey shorts - pads do not work in boxers).
2. Just realize that for 5-10 seconds, you are going to experience a VERY unpleasant sensation as the doctor or technician/nurse pulls out the catheter. You won't feel it when they deflate the balloon inside your bladder first, but you will most definitely feel a very unpleasant, moderately painful 5-10 seconds as they pull the catheter out. Then after muttering of few of your best "expletives", it is over.
3. You will IMMEDIATELY start leaking, even though you would have thought that the catheter bag was catching every drop in your bladder up until the moment it is removed. "Nope"...so, have have toilet tissue/Kleenex ready, and already have your legs through your diaper, so you can pull it up immediately. I immediately peed on the floor of the exam room...embarrassing, but the technician was gracious saying "don't worry, it happens all of the time." My post-op instructions included the need to bring at least two diapers. You will leave within 5-10 minutes of the catheter being removed, and you'll likely want to change the diaper in your doctor's office bathroom before you leave. Then...go straight home...you'll be leaking the rest of the day and the next several days in a significant way.
4. Most of all, and if your urologist hasn't written you an order, ask for 8 sessions (minimum) of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy. Your insurance might only approve two sessions to start, but all it will take it your PFPT Therapist submitting a request to your insurance provider for 6 more sessions, and it should be approved, as happened with me. I am actually glad that I never knew of it until I heard about it about 3-4 weeks after my catheter was removed (my urologist never wrote a Rx for the PFPT on the day my catheter was removed). I don't know if those PTPT exercises and the help beyond the Kegel exercises that I was given (and started right away), would have made a difference immediately after catheter removal. It seems that I needed to regain "some" control, and just live through the massive leaks for 3-4 weeks before things started calming down. I realized after-the-fact that starting PFPT four weeks-post-catheter removal worked the best for me. Others who started PFPT immediately, may chime in with different opinions though.
Good luck with it all.