I have been self catching for almost 2 years. I deal with incontinence due to the nerves for my bladder do not always tell me when i need to urinate. Also, when I do urinate on my own, I literally strain from pushing or else it won't come out even when I do feel the urge. It seems to have gotten much worse lately. I'm only 37 years old and wear Poise pads everyday, and when I go to change it, it is always soaked. Sometimes, I am literally too weak to be able to cath myself. Because of this weakness, my home health nurse suggested that it might be time for an indwelling catheter. Can someone please tell me how to know when it is time to transition to an indwelling catheter?
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You should talk with your Urologist.
I just had a supa pubic cath put in 12/4 and I am enjoying going places and not worrying about the bathroom. -
i had mobility and co ordination problems that made self cathing impractical to say the least. i had been using pads but found my pattern was that i only pee'd when when my bladder was overfull but even if i got to the bathroom when i sttod to transfer i would lose the lot - there was no pad that could cope with a full baldder load in one go, they are meant to absorb smaller amounts over time- so for me that was a big deciding point but the other thing was that i was always worried about the potential for odour with pads with larger amounts of urine- not that anyone ever commented and if the pads are close fitting the risk is small
the last thing is skin health, although i paid attention to hygeine, urine is acidic and once i changed to a permanent cath i noticed that generally i felt skin was in better knick than had been for ages
i guess one last thing was i had been wearing large paads or even pull ups and while they are very good, they have that bulky feel of a diaper or at least the old surf baord pads that we older ladies would remember from our teen years, only multiplied a bit- and instead of a few days a month, this is every day! it felt really good to be able to ditch those things again- now over time i have developed more spasms and that means i can leak a bit to but the smaller poise or tena pads do the job so it is still more comfy and i can still wear nicer panties than i had been.
initally i had an idwelling cath but after a few months my urologist advised a supra pubic caheter instead and i must admit i prefer it. it reduces the risk of UTI even further, even with my mobillity issue i can take of it myself other than changes- in the very unlikely chance it blocks i can do the flushes myself but blocks do not happen as frequent as they can use a larger catheter with an SP which makes blocking less likely. some people produce grit and sediment (or at least more than others) with a catheter and in a smaller cather that can block- i drink a lot but a couple of times when i was unwell and it was hot weather obviously i had not drunk enough and blocked but i was able to deal with it myself but with an indwelling cath i had a 14g and it needed to be changed every 4 weeks to avoid blocking but with the sp i have a size 26g and i only get it changed 8 weekly (some people go 12 weeks)
the only other difference t consider with the inwelling cath or SP is that if an indwelling falls out ( can happen occasionally if a balloon pops etc) you can make do for a while with pads but if your Sp falls out it must be replaced within an hour, quicker if possible as the tract starts to seal over as soon as the catheter is out and if you leave it a few hours it will probably mean a trip to OT to have it re done- but touch wood that has not been an issue in 5 yrs
if you are still used to self cathing and had a permanent catheter you would not necessarily need a bag- you could use a flip flow valve which is just a little tap that you flick open when you feel the need to empty instead of self cathing but you can connect it to an over night bag to avoid having to empty at night. the valves are good if you still like wearing shorts, going swimming etc as it is just tucked in your panties instead of having to have a drainage bag- i did it that way for quite a while but i don't have the hand dexterity so changed to a bag- if i went swimming i would just use a belly bag instead of a leg bag so it was less visible
i do not regret the decision to have a catheter though- takes the uncertainty out of that part of lifeComment
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