Piggy-back anytime!
I went through a period when I faced that Sahara in the evening. I started chewing extremely citrus-y gum in the evenings, and after awhile, the thirst seemed to abate quite a bit, especially if I had enough fluid during the day.
I completely sympathize with the night-time bedclothes and nightgown changes--that's the first thing that made me start using a stick-on urostomy bag at night. I still had to get up and cath, but at least the leakage I experienced was contained within that little bag and did not drench me. At this point, I feel comfortable sleeping six hours with that bag in place, and in the morning, it's got about 50 cc or so in it--the rest I drain out. So I figure okay--that's 50cc in the bag and then about 250-300 drained with the cath--a capacity of about 300 max before leaking starts.
Maybe this will get better; everyone here says that a 7-month old pouch is still "new." And I'm totally grateful that I found the little pouches and can use them rather than get drenched. It just would be nice NOT to have to go to that extreme since it halfway defeats the purpose of a continent reservoir operation.
My surgeon said a foley COULD be used on a short-term basis, so I considered a foley--but they are so large if you get one that has a lumen size to handle the mucus, and there is debate on whether or not they contribute to infection if used for very long, though I had one for three months prior to my surgery (not the same catheter, though--there were changes due to biopsies, and then I had BCG and went on intermittent cath for awhile). I think also that the balloon that anchors a foley cannot possibly be good to have resting on the pouch/stoma inner connection. The other thing about trying a catheter is that wouldn't it likely leak around that tube, too? And with almost any stoma location, I can't see managing a connection to a collecting bag--especially if it were used anytime other than at night.
