How to deal with catheter while recovering after prostate surgery?

I was 70 last year when I had NS RARP. I'm not a medical professional nor an expert in this stuff, so take the following as just my layman opinion based on my personal experience. That said, changing the bag, emptying it, etc wasn't really a big deal and other than the first time right after surgery when my wife helped me, I pretty much did all that stuff myself. While my wife insisted I use disposable gloves and antiseptic wipes to prevent infection, changing the bag couldn't have been much easier. But I should mention I had a very easy recovery with minimal pain and was walking around the day after surgery. Some guys certainly do have a tougher recovery. You didn't mention your age or overall fitness/health, but if you're in good shape before surgery hopefully you'll have a good recovery and will be able to easily take care of the catheter and bag by yourself within a day or so. That said, it is good to have a "plan B" in case your recovery doesn't go well and you need more help. You'll know pretty quickly how much help you'll need. Also, you asked about the bag (which really was easy to take care of as long as you can get up and walk around easily), but with the restrictions on not lifting (for me it was not more than 10 lbs for 6 weeks) makes many daily household chores (grocery shopping, taking out the trash, cooking, cleaning, etc) problematic and may well require some help (again especially if you have a tough or long recovery). You really want to follow your doctors instructions and not stress those stitches during recovery. As a practical matter, here's 3 tips: 1) the biggest "mess" I made the 7 days I had a catheter was one night I turned over in bed while asleep and the catheter tubing pulled apart and spilled some urine. Fortunately I had a disposable absorbent bed mat down so cleanup was as simple as just throwing it in the trash and putting another one down. But without that pad, I would have had wet sheets and a wet mattress. 2) I used the elastic leg straps for the catheter tubing. But during the day it'd slowly slide down my leg and end up putting tension on the catheter tubing. Keep an eye on it. 3) my care team recommended lubing the catheter tubing right at the tip of the penis with antibiotic ointment to prevent irritation. I used what they recommended and it did help. Best wishes.

I had my catheter in for two weeks. No major problems. Very easy to empty and to change between bags.

You are overthinking this. The bag is attached to a long tube. You shut it off and just pour out the urine. It’s simple.. There’s no real risk of infection I don’t know where you got the idea about that happening, A real first. It’s a one way tube.

You will find it is not difficult to walk around the second day after surgery and change the bag. It might be a little painful, but you can do it. I never used a night bag. The regular bag was always enough. I guess it Depends on how much you drink at night.

I ran a computer consulting company. Four days after surgery I went to three offices, sat down at Computers and worked on something.. I had to go in the bathroom once and empty the bag I had attached to my ankle. No one ever knew I had surgery or a catheter with a bag. The following days I went to many more offices,