Dear Forum Members,
I had a terrible episode with my catheter removal that I want to address with everyone here to get advice on how to avoid the problem next time around. I had my first TURBT and had to wear a catheter for around five days. After the five days, my urologist removed the catheter and I thought I was over this first event in treating my bladder cancer. I was on Norco, an opioid pain medication, which helped with bladder pain after the TURBT. Upon removing the catheter, my urologist told me discontinue the use of the Norco because it was not needed for pain any more.
Afterwards, my wife and I drove home and I felt the need to urinate, so I held it back until we got home. By the time we got home, I was pretty worked up to urinate, but found it impossible to do when I stood/sat at the urinal. In fact, I felt my bladder area tighten up, bloating up, and the pain was excruciating. I looked up what to do on the internet and tried to run faucet water, walked around the house, tapped on my bladder area, took deep breaths, in order to stimulate urination, but nothing worked.
I called my urologist and was told to just give it some time, and to call back in two hours if I was still not able to urinate and in pain. Well, by the end of the two hours I was buckled over with so much pain that I could hardly walk. I called my urologist again, and was told to take a Norco and drive back to the urologist’s office. The drive back to the doctor’s office was awful, and by the time I got to the doctor’s office I was sweating, breathing shallow, and shaking.
I had to wait until my urologist was finished with another patient before he would see me. Needless to say, I was in a needy state by the time my urologist got to me. My urologist and the nurse were afraid I was going through urine retention in my bladder, did an ultrasound, and found out that was not the case. In fact, there was hardly any urine in my bladder. The urologist figured out that my groin muscles just tightened up, I believe. He decided to install a new catheter into me and this released the tension and pain FINALLY.
I was told throughout the ordeal to just breathe and relax, and this would help stop my shallow breaths, shaking, and sweating. I understood this, but I believe I was in trauma and EXTREME pain!
Is this a common thing to happen with people and catheters? How can I prevent this from happening again? Should I make sure that I’m on muscle relaxant medication and pain medication the next time around? Is there anyone out there who has had an episode like this?
Becoming afraid of pain in future treatments, Lee
