Pain from catheter

I'm glad I found you gals and guys.
Ed

Hmmmm... That sounds like the numbing gel should do the trick for that. I don't have any experience with pain at that point. Good thing since I have to self cath now ever time I go. Once my prostate was removed, I could probably use a garden hose without pain. (Figure of speach).

Unless they are taking a running start from across the room to insert the catheter... That would also explain it.


Mike

Hello Ed,
Welcome to the party. Ed I've been dealing with medical problems
for almost twenty years. With my wife help and pushing, one of the first things i learned was you must drive your own boat or have someone like my wife who will not take no for an answer!!
While not enjoying the things i've been through i have had the
greatest doctors and nurses i could have asked for. But still
you don't take no for an answer!! Don't let them intimidate
you, even those at times we are in a poor position to speak up.
And yes it's not just you, i have also had some very painful
caths. I never found the pain lotion much help. I had my Dr.
give me a Rx for oxycodone. Take one an hour before. Pain problem
solved. It may even help minimize the embarrassment of your position thing. Drive The Boat!!!
Hope this helps.
Duke

Thanks for the quick replies. My original post is unclear. My prostate surgery was done back in December and that is fine. My urinary retention was less than 30 cc when last measured. My TURBT, and mitomycin treatment,was a week ago today.

The pain is at the distal end of my urethra (area of initial insertion) and pain there continues until the catheter is completely inserted. After that, it is fine--no pain, no discomfort. The pain also occurs during catheter removal, but it is not so bad (perhaps because it is faster).

Ed

Ed,

The nurse or whomever told you it doesn't hurt doesn't have much common sense.

Your original problem was prostate constricting your urethra which caused urine to be retained in your bladder. By the way, I think that is a risk factor for bladder cancer all by itself as the longer urine stays in the bladder, the longer the carcinogens that the body is trying to expel through urine stay in contact with the bladder wall. No studies on that yet but it is a theory of mine.

In any case, if your prostatic sphincter is so tight that you have retention issues, it makes perfect sense that trying to push something through there would hurt like the dickens.

I had issues but it wasn't super painful and it only hurt when they pushed through that spot.

What did help was having them put the numbing gel in there and then waiting for 10 minutes for gel to work.

Also some people have problems with small urethra which I would also imagine could cause some pain.

I think that laser reduction procedure actually takes a while to work so it could be it hasn't reduced the constriction yet. You should talk to the urologist (not the nurse) about that.

Mike

Ed, I know it is different for the guys, but in 2001 when I had a surgery,I had a catheter placed right after surgery, while I was still "out". When I did wake up the pain form the catheter was terrible. After complaining to my doctor, they took that one out and replaced with a different size - made all the difference in the world. Perhaps they have the wrong size?
Maybe some men will chime in soon.

Nancy