what to buy before surgery?

If he normally wears boxers - he'll need "briefs" after the cath comes out to help hold the pads.

A doughnut inflatable pillow might be very useful. Some men, not all, have bruising in the rear end area. The ride home for me was very tough. My wife drove while I tried to hang from the handle on the ceiling so my rear end didn't hit the seat. (Later the Dr. said he had to virtually scrape my prostate off of my rectal wall. I felt like I had been kicked right in the anus for about 6 weeks. Ugh.)

Also - ask your doctor about bladder contractions. Some docs are good and give you medication for them. My doc did not mention it, and on day 2 at home I had an experience that left me lying on the bathroom floor thinking I was dying. Or, maybe I was just wishing for death. Anyway, something to discuss with your doc BEFORE it might happen.

Good luck,

kcragman

Just before you leave the hospital, they will fix you up with some catheter supplies. Day bag, night bag, leg straps, get all the supplies out of them that you can because it's hard to find that stuff later on..

A bunch of things that were really useful and some things were not. I Really found the individually wrapped alcohol pads from Walmart helpful. Also the individually wrapped sterile gauzes. I used those to clean the catheter and around the catheter bag when I emptied it and cleaned it. Some lightly tacky tape for taping down the catheter. The hospital used an “anchor” on me but that came loose after the first shower. Make sure you have your doctor give you the numbing cream for you at the tip of your penis where the catheter exits. It will be helpful if you need it.

I did not use the male diapers (Depends, Flex Fit underwear for men)...btw, my wife hated me calling them diapers! They were too bulky and I, quite frankly, didn’t need them. You might want to start with the Depends, Max Guard pads. They are less bulky but still able to hold a lot of leakage. The next size down called Depends Shields...smaller, but still works. I use very thin pads that my wife had (Always, Very Ultra Thin, size #1) and then purchased some more when those ran out. Also, don’t be afraid to be around the house without pads... it will help you judge how much you are leaking.

Colace....start taking it now. To me, it’s a quality of life issue. As bad as this sounds, I wanted to be just on the edge of the runs so I could eliminate without any stress or strain...to include gas.

The other thing that might come in helpful and might be often overlooked, is a subscription to Netflix or Amazon Prime for watching movies. It helps the day go by.

You won’t likely have much pain, but it’s just the other items that will help you be a little more comfortable from all of the achyness...

Oh, and WALK! 😀. Just wanted to get that in!

IF your surgeon agrees for you to use a small leg bag and remove it from the catheter for short periods such as showering then you will need to be certain that the removal and reattachment is done in an antiseptic way. For me this meant alcohol swabs of catheter connection before and after, and gloves any time the connection was touched even for adjustment. The key here is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. This catheter is the highway directly into your injured bladder and care MUST be exercised. While I showered my wife rinsed the bag with a bleach/water mix and hung it to dry and I attached a clean dry bag after the shower. This is just as would be done at a hospital. The small bag needed emptying during the night and I was not sleeping that great anyway so I did that a time or two each night. I kept the bag in a small plastic container bedside so any potential spill was contained.
Agree for supplies from the hospital, a leg strap to hold the catheter and not be caught in clothing (Ouchie), extra bags, gloves, tape, anything they use there try to bring home with you some more of them/it.
I was glad to have the leg bag, even with the extra trouble, as it meant I could go out in my loose sweat pants to walk or ride with limited difficulties.