What's the deal on these Cath. bags.

Tim

I agree with your thought that just as you get used to it they remove it.

Before I left hospital one of the nurses gave me a thorough practical demonstration of what to do with the bags, pipes, velcro, tape, taps and hygiene etc. If nobody tells you what to do then ask.

You should have two types of bag. The night one holds about 1500ml the day one about 500ml. But remember you can empty it any time you like to keep it as light as possible.

The bags should have long pipes that you connect to the end of the actual catheter so that you can choose how far up or down your leg you want the bag depending on what is comfortable what your are wearing and what you are doing.
It is obviously important to keep the bag below the end of your penis to allow gravity to do its work. If you are sitting it is thus not so good to have the bag on your thigh. (I found it very easy to undo the velcro and move it up and down.)

Wear pants that that are not too tight and which make it easy to adjust things.

You should also be given a special sticking plaster that you attach to your thigh to which you can then stick the top end of the pipe to stop it flopping about and pulling on the catheter.

At night or when lying down for a rest you will also need to have the bag lower than you are. So what you do depends on how high off the ground your mattress is. I was given a special plastic hanger to whcih I could attach the bag and then hang it on the side fo the bed or the edge of a bucket. Other people have done something similar with an ordinary coathanger.
You may need to work out (with your partner) which side of the bed you need to lie to be able to have bag in the best place.

My mattress is also quite low so I was able to leave the bag on the ground sometimes when I was just having a short rest.

If you hang the bag onto something like the side of the bed, then remember to detach it before you move!!!!!!

You can also walk around holding the bag. (This is probably what you will do in hospital when you first get out of bed to stretch your legs after the robot and also when you do a bit of walking up and down the corridor.

If you have the bag as low down your leg as possible then if you go outdoors for a walk you can even empty it down a drain or in the grass by pretending to bend down to tie your shoe laces or adjust your socks

Have a look at a few of the comments in the thread at the top of the front page. The thread is called:
Prostate Cancer: The Really Useful List made by HW people for HW people.
I included a section near the bottom about people's thoughts about catheters and stuff.

Alfred

Timm, either bag needs to be below your penis to allow gravity to work in your favor...the night bag can lay on the floor next to the bed (that's what my husband did).

The leg bag straps around your leg just above the knee...remember, you want the tube to go down from the penis to the bag. The leg bag doesn't hold much...my husband's filled up on the drive home from the hospital which took about 30 minutes. The night bag holds alot more, and he didn't have to empty it during the night.

Timm,

When using the leg bag or the night bag, it's important to get the correct tension on the ten inches of rubber tubing that will be exiting your penis. You want some slack in this rubber tubing, and if you don't have the slack you're going to feel it.

A nurse at my hospital was kind enough to give me a yellow plastic plug for my catheter before I left the hospital. It looks like a golf tee, but larger in diameter and an inch long. It worked great for plugging the catheter when taking showers with the bag removed. It kept me from dripping on the bathroom floor. Ask for one before you leave the hospital.

I filled a house plant mister bottle with rubbing alcohol to spray the catheter connections before reconnecting. You don't want any bacteria in the system.

I used neosporin to keep the exit of my penis well lubricated while the catheter was in. It's one area that gets irritated easily and the neosporin worked well for me.

Tim:

Good questions. You got some pretty good answers so far. I am on my 14th catheter, and will be on my 15th next Monday. Not normal, so don''t worry. I have been on so many, I have become quite the conniseiur of catheter and cath accessories.

Don't know how far you have to be driven from the hospital, but its much easier to leave the hospital with the Night bag still on, or some call it the big bag.

The Night Bags come in sizes, but most common is 2000 ml or 2 liter. I had one I called the "clown" bag that held 4000 ml, it was way to big to drag around and looked stupid. The 2000 sounds like a lot, but I have filled them to the brim before on a night when I get a lot of sleep.

Always keep the bag below the natural level of your bladder. You don't want to have the contents back up to your kidneys. I have a dresser that runs along one side of the bed, so I pull the bottom draw out just a tiny bit, and hook the hook on top of the bag along the top of the drawer. It acts just like a little monorail, and as I move and wiggle, the bag can move back and forth on its own.

Most men with surgery only have the catheter in for 7-15 days, so by the time you figure it all out, they take it out of you.

When you take a shower, you can leave the big bag on and run the tube under the shower curtain, so the bag is outside of the shower, or you can detach the bag, and shower without worrying about the bag, it you drip a little in the shower, who cares, or you can plug the end of the cath after the bag is removed. PS, I don't like plugs, because taking them off and putting them in, can cause nasty back pressure pains up the catheter, doesnt fill good.

Leg bags, never lay down and fall asleep with one, it will back up inside. Leg bags are typical 400 ml, had one that 1000 ml. The smaller ones better, easy to empty. Usually step up to the toilet, bend down, open the tap, let it empty. Or if outside, not near a bathroom, do the bend down to tie my shoe trick, and let it empty discretely. I have gotten good at that part.

Some men use lubes or creams on the tip, I have never done that in the entire time of using catheters. Personal choice.

Bladder spasms - some get them, some not, some like me, all the time. Most dr. will prescribe ditropan, a cheap generic drug, that helps some with spasms. If you are having a foley cath, like most men, it exits your penis, a hard enough spasm will make you leak around the tip. I have a SP suprapubic cath in right now, almost 6 months straight, and it has never ever leaked a drop, sometimes I wish it would so it would relieve the pain of a spasm.

The bags should be cleaned out once in a while, unless you are on the cath a week or so. Wife usually does white vinegar and water.

Leg straps - lot of time elastic with velcro. Thats my 2nd choice, when the bag gets heavy, it can pull down. I like the elastic leg straps with buttons, they stay good and tight without hurting.

The device that hold the exit end of your catheter to your thigh is important. You will come out of the hospital with one in place. Make sure you have 1-2" min of slack in it, to compensate when you are lying flat or walking. Got to have some wiggle room. The one you come home will uusally last your time on the cath.

Stalock Stabilization Device is a brand that is good, they have a plastic swivel, so the "Y" end of the catheter can move naturally with you as you walk. Some hospitals used them, I am getting them now from a medical store in Tampa FL on the net. They can last up to a month. They also make cheap disposable holders, but the f irst time you take a shower, they are toast.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I don't know much, but I sure know too much about catheters. Good luck.

David in SC

Last minute tip when you go to get it removed, this is a technique I have only seen my uro/surgeon do.

He has me stand up completely, not lying back or down. He pushes some cleanup material under my feet so there is not mess. He slowly release the fluid in the balloon holding the catheter in place, then the catheter all but slides out on its own to the floor below. No pulling or tugging. The real trick is to release the balloon slowly, some nurses are in a big hurry, and whey they withdrawl all the fluid at once, it can create a weird hurt or back pressure feeling. It reached the point with as many as i have had, that only my dr. himself does the removal.

Recently, he had my wife remove a foley at home, she did it his way, while I stood in the shower stall, and the nasty slimy snake just dropped out without even a hint of pain.

David in SC

Thanks all

   I take it you cut a hole in your pants to get the cath. tube out for the big bag, or where shorts?

   I picked up some hospital scrubs bottoms they were real cheap, so figure I can cut them up.

 

   Question: Can you feel yourself urinate?

                                                                                   Thanks Tim

Tim,

So much good advice. I wore basketall pants that snapped up the side. I wore convertible pants when I wanted to dress up a little, these are the ones you change from pants into shorts. Just open the zipper a little and you have clear access to the bag. Sporting goods stores have them.

I put my bag in a bucket next to the bed. I slept like a baby. No problems with the bags at all. My abdominal muscles needed most of my attention and tricks. I attached a rope at the base of the bed and used it to help pull me up. That helped alot. I went to the local Mall and walked with the other walkers. Funny thing , they were dressed like me too.

Good Luck,

Frank

This thread has produced good advice so I've added some of the comments to the "really useful list"
Alfred

I was also a "single bag" patient. Hero has some good points. The nurses convinced me that swapping / washing out bags were risk points for infection, and the time period was short. Since I had a few extra days in the hospital for other issues, I got used to the big bag (2 liter aka Night bag). The snap-up pants are a great solution. I wasn't able to find any locally, so ordered them online from adidas. They call them "100 G pant". Several friends who have had long term catheters for other cancers made the suggestion to me initially. You may find them in school basketball uniform departments - I found that the sales people on the phone couldn't make the association. I would not have cared if they had a team logo on them -

I was given a spare big bag with instructions to change if the valve started getting blocked (it did, but I was due for the Drs. appt. to have it removed that day, so didn't bother once I got it flowing again).
They gave me the leg bag as well, but never felt the need to use it. They did NOT give me a longer tube for the leg bag, so put that on your check list before going home - I would have wanted it on my calf, and could not have done that with the parts I had. That was part of the reason I never used it.

Hope all goes well for you. We will be watching for news.

I had an experience with filling up the bag overnight. I had at least 1200 -1500 ml every morning (1.2-1.5 liters), some even more, so more than the leg bag holds (I think most of us agree it is not an overnight option).
One good reason to put the bag upright in a bucket - you will have some debris in your urine, and it clears the valve better when everything is upright. You may have a clog - I did one night - an the tube will back up (really ugly). You'll wake up quick. The solution was to flex the top of the bag a few times to clear the debris out.
I took the bag in the shower - got a very large hard plastic suction hook for the wall ($1.49 at the local store), and hooked the bag on it to keep it upright, but low. Obviously your movement is limited. I've always had a hand-held / bracket type shower massage, so it wasn't too big a deal. Looking back, if I had been faced with a fixed shower head, it would have been more problematic.

Adding to 142's comments.

Never go to bed with a leg bag on, it will back up into your bladder real fast, and remember, urine is sterile, but only when it is in the bladder, the moment it comes out, it is not sterile.

The big bag, or night bag, will fill easier and evenly if hung on something. When I go to bed, I happen to have a dresser that runs parallel close to my side of the bed, So the bottom drawer is slightly pulled out. I hang the bag on it like a little monorail track. It keeps it off the floor, and as I make minor sleep position changes, the bag can slide along the "rail" as I move.

At home, I almost only keep the big bag on. I only use the leg bag if I am leaving the house for any reason. Being a long term catheter wearer, I have less pain issues with the big bag. The big bag tends to equalize the pressure between the contents of the bag and the bladder, whereby the leg bag, is just a simple gravity fed collection point. Not sure from the engineering side of either, but that's how it works for me in practice.

When on the leg bag, even though it holds 400 ml, I empty often as I can get away from it. If you let it fill up, geez, I can feeling it pulling down on my leg, and sometimes the fluid is quite warm.

My doc gave my wife a sterile irragation kit and a half liter of sterile water, for emergency use only if the cath became clogged. My clogging yesterday was the only time that has ever happened in all 15 caths I have been on so far. If the dr. hadn't been changing it out yesterday anyway, my wife would have opened the irragation kit. She has done it many times as a nurse.