Posted 1/19/2015 12:50 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Men (and any ladies) -- I just replaced my drainage bag that had sprung a leak, with a replacement bag that thankfully was included in the supplies bag my nurse at the hospital threw together for me. In terms of the stakes and my excitement about getting it right -- I'm highly confident I got it right -- I feel like I just walked out on the wing of my in flight airplane, lay down on the wing, yanked out the engine that had quit, tossed it ("look out below!!" and calmly and confidently bolted on a new "engine" and walked back and climbed back in the cockpit. Real Indiana Jones stuff. Yes, I'm exaggerating. It ain't that hard.
I'm no engineer or scientist, and I figured it out pretty quick. That little junction of tubing from about 8 inches down to about 12 inches downstream of where the catheter exits willy, the first bit of tubing has at it's end, a place where the rest of the tube -- the replacement "Bard 100% latex-free urinary drainage bag, Ref (or part) No. 154102 -- starts with a slightly cone shaped (with a removable cap on the catheter's end) that clearly is intended to exactly fit into the tubing downstream 8-12 inches from the tip of willy. Match up the existing plumbing with the new pieces, and it's obvious what has to go where.
1, Fix in your mind the location where the catheter is taped to your leg
2. Free up the old catheter section you are replacing from it's position (un-tape it)
3. Pull off all of the tape. Keep track of where you are.
4. Lay down a new piece of paper tape (maybe 8 inches long x 3 inches wide is what I have)
5. Peel back the slightly cone shaped cover to the female end of the piece of tubing extending from willy
until you can pull out/extract the end of the male-cone shaped end of the tubing that is connected to the existing, leaking, drainage bag. There's a little structure 1/2 inch below the end of the catheter tubing coming out ... don't know it's purpose ... but on my Bard catheter you can recognize it from it's blue color
6. Remove the protective end cap and push the cone-shaped male end of the new drainage bag catheter into it's obvious female receptacle -- thus joining the two separate sections of catheter tubing -- and work the plastic covering as far over the connection spot as possible.
7. Dispose of the old, leaking drainage bag. I'm going to use a 15 gal plastic trash bag. Rinse out your bucket.
8. You did it! Congrats!
9. Victory lap around your house.
You'll grasp the fundamental relationship of the pieces to each other if you ever have to do this. You'll want to hope you are at home when you discover your trusted drainage bag has sprung a leak, and the bag (and it's attendant bit of tubing) needs to be replaced. If you go on an emergency business trip, or even just to the office while your catheter is still in, you want to take with you to the office your spare new drainage bag, along with a roll of that nifty 3 inch wide hospital paper tape.
If your drainage bag springs a leak -- who'd a thunk it?! -- and you don't have a spare, new, bag with you, that's known as being up the creek without a drainage bag.
Having a spare bag is not something you want to be without. Tonite or tomorrow I'm walking across the street to the local pharmacy CVS tried to drive out of business but didn't -- the smaller store shifted their stock to anything a geriatric, or anybody who has just had an operation, might need, and they've been booming and thumbing their nose at the CVS 5-6 doors away for 4-5 years now. I'm sure they've got or can order what I need.
If you've ever done any rudimentary home repair, this is not a complicated fix. Just go real slow, don't panic. Spend time looking at the old tubing and at the new tubing until the crucial junction location reveals itself to you -- the installation instructions on the new bag's packaging were worthless. Gently unplug the leaking bag and its catheter up to a foot downstream of Willy. Remove the cover or cap (like the cap on a tube of something) on the section of catheter tubing that comes with the new drainage bag. Insert the male shaped end into the female receptacle, tighten things up using pressure from your fingers to get the covering tubing over the new drainage bag catheter end (12 inches from Willy), and you are done. I think the whole repair took me 10 minutes max, start to finish.
Thankfully my leaking drainage bag was sitting in the pail next to my bed when I noticed a pool of urine in the bottom of the bucket, outside the bag. "What's this?!! Not good!!" methinks. Ten minutes later I was back in business. An emergency it definitely was. You have to stop what you are doing and deal with this immediately should it ever happen to you.
I couldn't be more pleased with myself had I crawled under my car and replaced the transmission in the middle of a busy intersection at the height of rush hour. This little project seemed of equal gravity to me. Maintain, clean, nurture, and protect your catheter at all times! Keep a spare!
Bill Positive