Preping for surgery?

The search function on the website leaves a bit to be desired.

I have better luck with Google searching.

You can try typing something like this into google. It will search the HealingWell site for what's in the quotes. I tried this and a bunch of surgery stuff came up.

"prostate+recliner" site:www.healingwell.com

It sounds like you have the basics covered. Because it only costs a couple of bucks I bought several different kinds and types of ointment. Also bought both "pads" and the full underwear for continence issues. Turned out the full underwear worked quite well but they were too hot and sweaty for me yet others used them all the time. It might be a bit of trial and error for you to figure out what works best in terms of sleeping, ointments and pee control.

I found having at least one spare leg band to hold the cath in place was helpful. I just stuck the pail in the shower with me and changed the wet leg band to a dry one after I finished.

Hope it all goes well for you.

schoolpsych,

Look back at the thread I started (JayMot) and the last post in it was 5/28/16. The title of the thread was "D-Day - June 1". You can search on that too. Many good posts of members helping me out prior to my surgery.

I will tell you this, that I went to my son's baseball game three days post surgery with the leg bag. I needed to drain the leg bag every hour or so. If you are just hanging around day, just use the big bag and drop it in a 5 gallon bucket. Then, just carry the bucket around. But, use the leg bag if up and around alot.

I had an issue with the catheter draining properly at night. It seemed that when the tub routed over my leg then down into the big bag in the bucket, that uphill climb stopped my cath from draining. I got a feeling that I had to pee.....when I sat up, the cath promptly drained. I changed the routing of the tube to under my leg, so it always went down hill. I was concerned that my leg weight may grush the tube, but it did not. Cath was a pain, but doable. And if I am saying that, the baby that i am, you'll do fine.

J

schoolpsych,

nah, just use the leg bag. If you wear some loose sweats like I did, no one will even know you have it on. Plus the leg bag can be emptied in 10-15 seconds. The same amount needed for a 'regular' pee.

One thing to be aware of, at least for me, and I was warned. SHOULDER PAIN from the anesthesia! They invert you to operate and the gas and anesthesia try to exit your body by rising. Your shoulders may be in considerable pain for days following surgery. Someone said to have heating pads ready. I did and I needed them. They really helped.

One more thing.....take the stool softeners religiously. One thing you don't want to do is struggle while sitting on the toilet!

J

schoolpsych,

I had a leg bag for a week for another "issue" some time ago. I actually went to work with it. As long as I wore baggy sweats, nobody was the wiser. At the time, it was actually easier to empty the bag than it was to pee normally. the only place I had to be careful of the tubing was when driving the car. Yes. . . I actually drove to work and home with it. If you're careful, you can do almost anything.

I'll take JayMot's comment about stool softeners one step farther. When I had heart surgery, nobody clued me in about how the anesthetic and pain meds would slow down (or stop) your digestive system. After having open-heart surgery my system was so messed up that 4 weeks after surgery I had to be re-admitted to the hospital to get my system re-started. After that, the docs prescribed Miralax. They said to start with full dosage daily. Once things got going, titrate to half dose, then after a week or two, either use one-fourth dose or stop it. I cannot over-emphasize how miserable you would become if your system gets as stopped up as I was, so keep an eye on it.

Schoolpysch -

As others have noted use a 5 gallon bucket Menards/Home Depot (nothing fancy) and you hang the overnight bag inside on the rim of the bucket. The tubing was long enough, 5 feet maybe? When I shower the whole works comes in and sits in the corner. You actually get quite good negotiating around the house with it. It also has a bit more "give" than a piece of furniture if you get up and walk away the bucket topples over but the cath stays in place.

At night time I moved around a lot and feared pulling on the cath so I also used a couple pieces of surgical tape on my leg in addition to the leg strap. Slept in the recliner with tube routed downwards to the bucket.

The leg bag does hold for about an hour depending on intake of course. I have also used the overnight bag EMPTY stuffed in the bottom of my sweat pants that have elastic at the bottom in the house. It looks a bit funny but you are mobile and don't have to do the "change your bag dance" from overnight to leg and back again.

I never did the donut cushion but I bet it would help. For sometime, weeks anyway, I felt like I was sitting on a small bar of soap. Very tender in the nether-region. It will be a while before you just plop down on any seat, especially a wooden one.

If no problems 4 or 5 days post surgery you should be doing quite well. I got fatigued easily doing to much but fine just sitting. I say if no problems because you might want a way out, a place to lay down if the whole event is just too much too soon.

I got all my stuff on Amazon, good prices and no need to stand in the Walmart isle with a pack of pads and underwear in your basket. I also bought extra overnight/leg bags and leg straps. Instead of rinsing them with water and vinegar I just tossed the whole works. The leg bags are 2 or 3 bucks, overnight are a bit more. After "washing" one out I found the few extra dollars in the big scheme of things was worth it not to have to slosh pee around in the sink.

Jon

Prepare yourself mentally to always have to sit when using the bathroom when on stool softeners. Often times I got more than expected when I relaxed to urinate. This was actually the gross part of recovery. Going out for dinner and having to sit in a restaurant's men's bathroom was disgusting.

There is a very fine line between too little and too much stool softener. You will find it but it may take a bit to figure out.

You're getting the right list. I bought a donut cushion and never used it. I did get a pair of "basketball pants" which are sweats that have snaps all the up the legs so you can literally unsnap and step out of them...which makes it handy for catheter tubing to leave at thigh level and keep your legs warm. (I had surgery in February in the midwest, and it was COLD and SNOW).

You can ask your doctor for a scrip for lidocaine gel for the catheter where it goes out. Or, just regular triple antibiotic gel works too.

Feel free to read "my story" linked in my signature.

Don't forget.....Go have as much sex as you can. It will never be the same after the surgery.

Leg bag, even in the shower. Loose fitting sweat pants, back in action 2 days after getting out the hospital, 5 days before the cath came out. Stood up to empty the bag. No problems.

Slept on the couch for the week before it was removed. No buckets, pads or other extraterrestrial paraphernalia. Healthy diet so no constipation problems either. Back to my regular daily runs 2 days after cath removal, only 6 miles a day for that year though. Bumped it back up to 7 miles a day in the new year after.

No salves or such, just daily long hot showers. Stood up in the shower too, no probs.

The leg bag is not a problem. The catheter is the problem because it just doesn't feel great. But it is not as bad in fact as it seems in prospect.

The biggest problem I had with the leg bag was on an airplane. They wouldn't let us get us use the toilets during the flight and the bag became overly full. When I stood up, gravity pulled the bag down and it disconnected from the catheter tube. Then pee dripped down my leg. I moved as fast as I could toward the restroom, where I emptied the bag. But my pants were significantly wet. Fortunately I had anticipated this might happen so I had a spare pair of trousers handy. After a quick change, as was well again.

Then there was the time I was on Connecticut Ave in Washington, DC, across the street from the zoo when I realized that pee was dripping down my leg. I ducked into the bathroom at a Starbucks a found to my horror that the catheter itself had come out of my penis!!!! Disaster of unimaginable proportions!! Thanks to an iPhone we located a drugstore 100 yards away and my wife got a package of women's incontinence pads, and that allowed us to get home. Leg bag accidents happen, so be prepared.

Some people recover quicker than others. I had robotic surgery, and those six abdomen incisions hurt a lot when I sat up in bed. Getting in and out of bed was bad. Once upright or back in bed, I was fine.

I was tired a lot. Naps were important for weeks afterward. I would not have gone to a basketball game 3 days post-surgery, but your results will no doubt vary from everyone else's. Eight weeks post-surgery I was back to mountain biking with no lingering effects of the surgery.

Best of luck to you, and keep us posted on how you are doing. Over-sharing is allowed here, I think.

Post Edited (fiddlecanoe) : 12/6/2016 4:06:58 PM (GMT-7)

FiddleCanoe said...
Leg bag accidents happen, so be prepared.

This is very good advice and also applies to after your cath time. To this day (almost 2 years post surgery) I still sleep on large pads, carry underwear pads with me and when we fly soon, I will be using the full depends underwear and carrying a change of clothes with me.

I haven't needed the safety / backup supplies very often but when you do it can save you lots of embarrassment. It's funny too, it seems to happen when you least expect it.

Never used a bucket for the catheter bag. Wore baggy cargo shorts and just hung the bag from one of the cargo pockets after running the bag and tube down one leg. Walking that way was fine with nothing to carry. When sitting just let the bag sit on the floor. When sleeping I hung the bag on the side board below the mattress. Never used the leg bag. The large bag was never enough trouble to make it worth the hassle.

For underwear I initially made a mistake in using non-stretch boxers. The material was not very soft and irritated the tip where the catheter entered. Soft knitted boxers that stretched and felt a lot like a soft light flannel material were much more comfortable.

Did a lot of walking and stairs in the house. Actually did a fair amount of shoveling with a very light powder snow early in the week after surgery. Just pushing not lifting and throwing.

I'd hold off in getting a lot of incontenence supplies until you have a sense of how things were going. Bought the thick pads at first and never really needed them. Went back to work the Monday after getting the catheter out on Friday using only the light shields. Only used them for about a month or six weeks after catheter removal.

Post Edited (JoeInBucks) : 12/6/2016 5:11:52 PM (GMT-7)