Thoughts on cath removal...too soon?

Ok, let me start by saying I'm new to this (RALP 9/15/17) and am still learning. I have very difficult BMs that are causing blood around the cath (am on Colace 2x a day) How much blood? 10-12 bright drops (makes the toilet look very frightening) but not in cath bag or urine. From reading, this appears to be normal and somewhat expected. Even on the discharge sheet it said not to worry unless uncontrollable or with fever (it's not those).

My question is how long does it take for the connection between the bladder and urethra to heal? Some have theirs out in a week, mine is planned for 2 weeks. How do the Drs know if it should stay in longer or not? BTW, I'm not a fan of this cath...

Post Edited (Tiger88) : 9/26/2017 12:07:31 AM (GMT-6)

Hi, I hated that catheter! I did have a few drops of blood, but they didn't happen initially which scared the hell out of me when they arrived later - but they did go away. I had mine in for 10 days & I had constant pain & discomfort. I was told 10 to 14 days & so I called at 10 days & got it taken out.
The scan test afterwards showed it was healed ( otherwise they put it back ). But it's different for everyone. The nurse did say when she took it out, that it was one of the larger sizes - given I'm a totally normal size guy probably too large a size I think.
Note - do your pelvic floor exercises every day or twice a day - it's the one thing that will get you through the next 6-8 weeks. After 8 weeks, things changed for the better very quickly. The ability to retain urine improves as you re-inflate ( re-train ) your bladder.
I spent years training my bladder with beers & now at 6 months I'm happy to say, I'm back to a few beers a day without too many issues. In fact removing the enlarged prostate has been a side benefit!

I did not have surgery for my PCa, but I did have some other very major surgery and serve as an online support counselor on another medical/surgical forum. One thing we advise all members who have or will have surgery is that the impact of pain meds on each patient's intestinal system will be different. Some people will be hardly impacted at all, and others will be fully "blocked up" - often for alarmingly long times. We advise patients to start immediately after surgery with a gentle laxative like Miralax, taking the full dose several times a day until bowel function re-starts and normalizes. Then take half-doses several times a day for a few days, then quarter doses for a few days, then stop. This allows the bowel to regain natural function without the muscle cramping caused by the more harsh laxatives (like magnesium citrate, etc.). We find that in most cases, this information is left out of patient discharge instructions. In my own case, after open-heart surgery, my intestinal system was so messed up that I had to be re-admitted to the hospital to get things "going" again. Not fun.

With my surgeon permission and to avoid a 70 mile one way trip I removed my own Cath on day 10. Just stood in the bathtub and removed fluid from balloon and the darn thing slipped out without any discomfort at all. A big non-event.
Good Luck,
Hero

The discharge is very common and usually occurs during the BM. It takes a couple of weeks for the anastomosis to heal. That is why the doctors usually tells the patients not to have sex for month.

I've got the walking plan down pretty good. Binge watching Longmire and walking 200 paces between each episode.

So there is a chance my Dr will go ahead and remove the cath even with blood leaking during BM? I say chance because I know everyone is different and the Dr will make the call. I will have had it two weeks on the dot post surgery.

Mine came out after a week, maybe the 8th day.

They did a test to make sure that the connection was healed. They filled my bladder up with water (via the catheter) and looked at what was going on via sonogram. Then they pulled the catheter out and made sure I was able to pee.

I could have put out a fire with that thing. I haven't peed like that since I was eleven years old!

They removed the cath at the follow up and it was at day 14. Life is way better now as I can walk again without fear of accidentally bumping into something!

The blood had to be from the cath irritating the urethra. I haven't had much (noticeable) but can tell it's in the urine since I can see it on the pads. It is more brown than reddish. Sleep comes in ~2 hr spurts as I get up to urinate that often. But, the pads stay relatively dry. It gets better each day as I am learning how to pee all over again!

Still trying to figure out the pads. I am getting some leakage and going through 2-3 pads a day. I'm not sure how to classify what is "full" on the pad. I get drops but no streams in the pads. I go enough that most of the leakage is stress induced. Still working that out.