Living with an indwelling catheter

Living with an indwelling catheter has been an unexpected experience.  Not the kind of thing you would ordinarily think of or even blog about.  This might be of interest if you have found this through Google ‘Living with an indwelling catheter’ because you have, or are about to have one.  It will be a bit personal, so feel free to skip onto another blog post entry now if this is not for you.

Otherwise I do hope you won’t mind me talking about it, right now it seems to be having an increasing impact on my day-to-day life.

It is now a little over two weeks since I was fitted with a catheter.  It is referred to as an “indwelling” catheter as it is for ongoing use, although I am trusting it is only temporary.  It is recommended an indwelling catheter is changed every three months to avoid problems with infections.

Installing the catheter

You might remember I had this catheter fitted when I was in hospital; there was no choice, it was just done and the reason for this was urine retention and I’ve previously blogged about being admitted into hospital.  It was fitted by a Doctor who was very nervous as he hadn’t fitted a catheter before.  The first step was using a syringe to squeeze some lubricating gel into my ureatha and I this includes a local anaesthetic as well.

Next the catheter itself was taken out of its sterile packaging and gently pushed into the ureatha.  As the tube was fast disappearing inside me I could feel my muscles squeezing hard to try and stop this foreign object in its tracks.  It was the supervising nurse who told me to just relax and that helped.  I winced as the tube passed through what I imagined to be my prostate and reached its destination inside my bladder.

Almost there now.  The nurse connected a syringe to a little tube coming off the catheter and this is used to pump a little water and inflate a balloon to keep the catheter in place.  The last step was then to connect a long tube onto the catheter tube and then the urine started flowing through – all 3.8 litres.  From what was said, this was quite a lot (a normal bladder will hold 500 to 750 mls).

Initial feelings and problems

You might wonder what having a catheter inside you will actually feel like.  Naturally it felt a little strange but not uncomfortable at all.  In the first few hours I would often get the urge to pee, except I couldn’t and the feeling would fade away shortly afterwards.  When I wanted to have a poo the next morning, it became quite painful and I think this was the wrong signals getting through to the wrong muscles.

While I was in hospital I needed to take care getting in and out of bed, so as not to forget there was a tube coming out of me; the last thing I wanted to do was get the tube caught on something and do myself an injury!  I also had an intravenous drip going into my hand and this was connected to a stand which was as tall as me.  I clipped the catheter onto the stand (low down) so I could wheel it along the corridor as I walked up and down.  This seemed to increase the flow of urine.

In terms of problems, there hasn’t been anything too major and it is now just over two weeks since it was fitted.  Although there are a few points to make:

• The leg bag for daytime use holds 500ml of urine.  That’s quite enough.  Anymore would be too heavy to be held in place securely.  Currently I am emptying the bag 10 times a day.  If the leg bag becomes too full it is very heavy and there is a chance it could leak or even burst open.
• The straps to hold the bag onto my leg weren’t very comfortable.  The replacement ones are nice, more reliable and more comfortable.  These are also from Coloplst and are stretchy with a brilliant Velcro fastening.
• The hospital issued bags had a smooth plastic finish and made my leg feel sweaty.  The subsequent bags have a tissue backing, which is much better.
• I have only had a leak on one occasion, where the bag’s tube joins on to the catheter tube.  It wasn’t connected properly and leaked.
• Care needs to be taken to avoid blockages in the catheter tube. as this can cause real problems.   Be aware of any debris floating down the transparent tube
• A couple of times the tube has had a kink and therefore urine has not flowed from my bladder.  Easily fixed and my mistake was not noticing early enough.  When the urine is blocked and then starts to flow suddenly into the bag, you can feel you leg suddenly feeling very warm!
• It takes a little while to learn how best to position the catheter tube in my underwear
• The 2 litre night time bags are great and come with a long tube.  I have put a couple of screws into a piece of wood and pushed this between the mattress and bed base, so the bag can hang on the side of the bed.  This works really well.
• There is an emotional side to all of this which was not discussed at the hospital, neither was the subject of being intimate.  It could be one of those things where it is easier to assume it won’t matter to the patient.  It does matter!  Sometimes I fear they have forgotten about me and I’ll have this thing stuck inside me on a permanent basis.
• 99% of the time I am completely unaware of my catheter.

Longer term use

As mentioned, I have had the catheter for over two weeks now.  I suspect I will have it for a few more weeks.  I have read infections can happen but so far I’ve not had any problems like that.

One of the “benefits” is being able to drink as freely as you want without having to worry about going to the toilet in the middle of the night.  Just fill that 2 litre bag up!  I’m sure that drinking loads and loads of water is helping my kidneys recover and possibly preventing any infections.

Also the consultant allegedly said (according to Rachel!) I shouldn’t go running or exerting myself and to be careful not to put any strain on my kidneys.  Besides, I can’t exactly go running with a leg bag.  I asked the District Nurse if there were any solutions to this problem and she knew of none.  I asked if I could take the leg bag off and simply “plugging” the catheter tube to allow me to go on a 30 minute run.  She didn’t think there would be a problem and then recommended a local supplier (Herringtons in Dunstable).  So I popped into Herringtons and explained the problem and asked if they had some kind of stopper or rubber bung.

The first member of staff referred me to another who then went checking various catalogues and their computer system.  She spoke to a colleague of hers and then another before heading down into the cellar.  After a few minutes she came up with this tap-like gadget.  Ideal.

I have agreed with Rachel I won’t go running until after we have seen the consultant tomorrow.  I’m not quite sure how I will manage with this tap and my running shorts but I’m sure there’s a solution there!  I do have some pretty serious running withdrawal symptoms!

Hope this helps

If you’re reading this because you have (or will have) a catheter for a few weeks or more, I hope this will have been interesting for you.  I found very little on the web about this issue and I hope this has been helpful.

If you have the same kind of catheter, let me know how you get on with it.

Relevant:

Long term catheter use – my post at the 6 month stage

Coloplast – suppliers of the catheter supplies I have been given – seem pretty good to me!

Living with a urinary catheter – an American site, with a small forum

Living with an indwelling catheter – a nursing practice paper

Readers Digest – top tips for living with a catheter