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Taking Catheter Out

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Posted 1/30/2011 10:50 PM (GMT 0)
Wasn't joking about wanting to have a catheter to put in. Like some other guys, including Dave, the catheter was removed to early at first, and I clogged up that night. Wife took me to the hospital, but during the ride over there the pain level went up substantially. It got the to point where it was affecting my hearing and my vision. When they put in a new catheter, it didn't hurt at all. And then there was glorious relief.

My wife knew that there are men and women, boys and girls too, who have to self-catheterize for various medical reasons. I figured that if I clogged up again, I could put a catheter in myself before the pain level got to be too great. I asked the doc, but he said no, the tissues are still healing and you could hurt yourself. Fortunately it turned out not to be necessary.



DJ
Posted 1/31/2011 12:06 AM (GMT 0)
DJ,

That was good advice on not being eager to self cath. When we men have our prostate surgeries, there is a lot of delicate sewing and sutures in place. When I had one of my early emergency sessions with a cath, the local ER almost did perm damage to me, angering my surgeon, as the on-call ER doc did not listen to the Uro's advice about what size and type of cath to use. That was a night from hell to me, as two doctors and a total of 3 nurses tried to get a cath back into me.

As far as self-cathing, there are legitimate times for that, and lots of people have done it for years (but what a hassle), but the self-cath caths are much smaller in diameter, and are suppose to be easily inserted, assuming there is normal tissue that it is passing through.

The whole subject still makes me cringe. Ouch.

David
Posted 1/31/2011 1:17 AM (GMT 0)
What a bunch of wimps.

Just bite on a rope and shove it in or pull it out (whatever is needed).

Geezzzzz

Mel

Posted 1/31/2011 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
Done right, it can be sort of fun. Heh.

DJ
Posted 1/31/2011 2:09 AM (GMT 0)
Mel, I have to assume this time you are joking?

DJ - cant imagine it being fun at any level, not unless you are into strong S&M stuff, lol.
Posted 1/31/2011 2:39 AM (GMT 0)
David:

You actually have to ask?

<g>

Mel

Posted 1/31/2011 4:41 AM (GMT 0)
I had the pleasure of having the cath twice - both removals were done by the nurse at the uro's office - no x-rays, no scans. The first - the nurse was relatively new - she pulled rather slowly and it was a tad painful. The second - the nurse pull started me like a lawn mower - before I could take a deep breath it was out. No pain. I about kissed her for the painless pull. lol
Posted 1/31/2011 12:50 PM (GMT 0)
Good God! This post is horrifying!

I'm now more terrified of the catheter removal than I am of the surgery.

I plan on saving a double/triple dose of pain meds for the "happy moment"

Thanks everybody.
Posted 1/31/2011 4:26 PM (GMT 0)
GTOdave,

Sometimes on a site like this, the perspective is tilted towards aspects of a situation that were problematic instead of typical.

I think a quick and relatively painless catheter removal is way more typical than depicted on this thread. For me, I was a bit scared of what would happen but on a scale of 10 it was a .5 or less, plus it literally took less than 2 seconds. I would say it was less of an event (discomfort-wise) than pulling a sticky bandaid off of my arm.

I have three friends here locally that have had prostatectomies and their experience was similar.

Dan
Posted 1/31/2011 4:37 PM (GMT 0)
GTO, go back to my post.

The point was that I had 21 catheters removed, and none of them hurt.
Posted 1/31/2011 5:02 PM (GMT 0)

Purgatory said...
GTO, go back to my post.

The point was that I had 21 catheters removed, and none of them hurt.

You sir, are my hero!

I shall endeavor to consider what you have endured at that fateful moment and try not to behave like a wuss. (he says now, but only time will tell!).

Dave
Posted 1/31/2011 5:49 PM (GMT 0)
Dave:

I think I may have already posted this, but:

I was pretty scared too. I went in to the nurse, and waited for it to get done. I told her to go ahead and she said it was already done. It was that painless.

Mel

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