damgoodview said...
New gal here...sorry for another question that I have. (I do come up with interesting ones in the wee hours of the night) What determines how long one wears a catheter post surg???
Hello again,
Nice to meet you again in a different thread.
When I had my DaVinci at Mayo Clinic, I stayed in the motel for about
10 days post-op so that I could have the same surgical team remove the catheter -- it was too far & expensive to travel back home & then return a week later.
I'm sure that other clinics are similar in that Mayo gave me a color chart that represents the various colors of the urine being collected in the bag. The darker, purplish colors represented a higher blood volume in the urine -- something to be expected in the days immediately after the surgery.
They told me to give them a call if it became a certain color, etc.
As the full week progressed, the color became lighter than at the beginning. When I reported back to the Mayo Urology department a week later, I was put on a table and a nurse examined the collection bag. She then left the room to consult with the surgeon regarding the color.
When she returned a few minutes later, she said the doctor said the color looked okay & it was time to pull the catheter out. No scan was done, they just went by the color.
I was, of course, petrified with anticipation & fear of pain. The nurse gave me the craziest brain teaser to think about
-- which led me to wonder if she was crazy. LOL
But the nonsensical nature of her dialogue momentarily took my mind off the catheter. And, in that one split-second, she suddenly made a quick tug and the catheter was in her hand & out of my body -- and I never felt a thing. She then laughed & said she was just tricking me to ease my tension.
Worked like a charm.
They told me to spend the next 2 hours walking around the clinic, drinking fluids, etc. Shortly afterward, I had to go to the bathroom for the very first time with my remodeled plumbing. Everything worked fine, no pain, no burning, etc.
When I returned to the Urology Dept., they had me urinate in a special toilet that measured (I think) the volume & force, etc. Then I went back on the exam table and the nurse did a hand-held scan over my abdomen and happily told me that I had voided the bladder just fine.
So, while your husgand has his catheter in, you'll both be monitoring the color of the urine output. If it is "light" enough after a week, they'll probably remove it.
In some cases, it could be 10 days, or even a couple weeks. But the average presence of this "dance partner" is only one week, then it's all over.
On another note, the catheter is NOT painful for the time it is in there. It gets cumbersome & sometimes a bit annoying, but it does not hurt. Once in a while I would have a bit of irritation where it emerged from the tip of my penis, but they gave me a small squeeze tube of jell to apply, which immediately took the irritation away.
In the meantime, I kind of "had fun" with it in the knowledge that I could drink pots of coffee & cases of pop (they do encourage drinking lots of fluid) WITHOUT WORRYING about
having to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes. So there ARE some crazy "benefits" with its temporary presence. LOL
Take care,
Chuck
Resident of Highland, Indiana just outside of Chicago, IL.
July 2011 local PSA lab reading 6.41 (from 4.1 in 2009). Mayo Clinic PSA Sept. 2011 was 5.7.
Local urologist DRE revealed significant BPH, but no lumps.
PCa Dx Aug. 2011 at age of 61.
Biopsy revealed adenocarcinoma in 3 of 20 cores (one 5%, two 20%). T2C.
Gleason score 3+3=6.
CT of abdomen, bone scan both negative.
DaVinci prostatectomy 11/1/11 at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), nerve sparing, age 62.
My surgeon was Dr. Matthew Tollefson, who I highly recommend.
Final pathology shows tumor confined to prostate.
5 lymph nodes, seminal vesicles, extraprostatic soft tissue all negative.
1.0 x 0.6 x 0.6 cm mass involving right posterior inferior,
right posterior apex & left mid posterior prostate.
Right posterior apex margin involved by tumor over a 0.2 cm length, doctor says this is insignificant.
Prostate 98.3 grams, tumor 2 grams. Prostate size 5.0 x 4.7 x 4.5 cm.
Catheter out in 7 days. No incontinence, occasional minor dripping.
Post-op exams 2/13/12, 9/10/12, PSA <0.1.
Semi-firm erections now happening 14 months post-op & slowly getting a bit stronger.
Post Edited (HighlanderCFH) : 3/21/2013 3:05:02 PM (GMT-6)