Catheter length tied to more incontinence and ED issues?

I had my original catheter in for other 63 days, due to severe bladder neck to urethra connection issues. When I was finally free, I virtually never experienced incontinence. I would say, that sometimes the extra healing time can help. Also, I never experienced any ED, none, and I often wonder if the extra cath time allowed or helped in this department.

I know we all hate being on a cath, trust me, after spending a total of 1 1/2 years on 21 different ones, I speak first hand. But, sometimes, I think there is too big a rush to get them out, and perhaps better healing would take place if they were left in longer. Just my take.

David

I doubt that less cath time means better results. Take it out too soon, you don't heal, and can have damaging leaks from the urethra. Take it out later, things are healed better, but there is more bladder irritation.

Mine was in 7 days. I suffered 5 months of 8 pads a day, and now, 4 years + out, I still need one-three a day. ED? That has to do with nerves.

Mine was in for 7 days, been 100% dry since.

My catheter was in for 2 weeks following surgery. Once it was removed, I was basically dry and pad free by the 6th week.

I'm now 9 weeks post op and doing very well. Back to the gym on a daily basis. As for ED, well the nerves were saved but my Surgeon said it will take about a year till things return to normal. I'm using 100mg of Viagra and getting a decent results.

All the best to you in your recovery. I'd say the longer you have the cath, the better your results will be.

Tailwinds..........Berk

Interesting. I really struggled with the catheter, not that most of us don't, but it was like trying dial in an old AM radio station on an old transistor radio...I could never just dial it in quite right where I got a clear signal so to speak. Neosporin was the greatest thing in the world at that point in time. What I would've done without it I don't know.

My catheter was like an over pressurized fire hose that wasn't connected to the hydrant tightly. I would spray urine almost all the time especial during bowel movements...Oh, how I HATED those. I would purposely eat little and try to stay with as much liquids as possible.

Right near the end, I got it hooked on a coffee table... I was literally afraid to look, I thought I'd find a bloodied baloon laying there on the ground. What a moment of instantaneous fear. I remember looking and still seeing old blue tube still connected so I just grabbed some neosporin and pushed her back up in there thinking I must've pulled her quite tight.

I really thought the longer it was in the more difficulty the body would have adjusting to it not being there. My incontinence journey was better than expected. I was happy to be pretty dry at around 8 weeks. If I could get hitting a golf ball down, I'd feel like I was completely over it.

One of the things that is tough, if you're a mad googler like I am, you find all kinds of schools of thought on every issue relating to PCa. 12 days of catheter is not the norm from what I read and I only had it that long due to scheduling and a weekend falling in there at the end.

My erroneous beliefs also thought having that in there may affect your nerves in some way...I can honestly say I don't think I ever looked at a diagram showing exactly what was taking place with the catheter and I'm not sure I ever really do want to know. Just glad Cathy is gone.

When I read the subject, I thought that Inchoation meant that there was a connection between ED and catheter length (meaning, how many inches long was inserted into the bladder, or something like that). When I read the post I now see that he's referring to catheter duration.

-Gedman