Neo bladder infections

My foley got blocked up while in the hospital recovering after my ER fun day. Fortunately, I realized it in time.

I tried to self cath in the doctor's office. "It won't go any further!" might seem funny now, but I almost passed out. He told me half his patients self cath, a minor fact he neglected to mention prior to the surgery. I intend to be the other half.

Chris,

What caused mine to expand was having a Foley Catheter in during surgery to repair a kink in my intestines. The nurses didn't realize that I had zero output even though I'd been on IVs during the surgery and afterward.

I finally realized it myself and had them pull the Foley so I could self cath.

Check with your uro on the self cathing. It should not be a problem after having your prostate removed but if there is it could be they need to do the laser thing. It all depends on the cause. My doc said they might be able to try that on me, but I find cathing no problem at all so I'd rather do that than get another surgery.

Mike

Red, Cathing was "creepy" for me at first also.
Once you get good at it, and convince yourself, it's a "good thing" you will be much better off.
You sound just like I used to be. Any reasoning to get oughta doing it.

JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!

Jim

Mike:

I seem to recall you had some complication that caused your neo to expand too far--1000cc?

Anyway, had another infection last month that landed me in ER--excruciating pain, a half day in hell. I'm still not certain what it was, but at least an infection and partial blockage. They tell me it probably wasn't a stone, but from stories I've read/heard, sounds awfully similar.

The doc's first word was “self-cath”. He wants me to cath 2-3 time/day. Seems drastic, and I almost passed out trying to do it anyway. Since the problem is voiding, I'd think I should be concentrating on THAT. I developed a hernia three months ago from pushing too hard, incorrectly I'd say, so I eased up for a while--bad decision. After the ER visit I think I've gotten better at it. I'm still waiting for the home scanner. If I half to cath, I might as well just run a stoma to the neo.

I'm not sure what a normal stream is like anymore. Lee's suggestion of scanning every visit and perhaps lasering the opening sounds more promising.

Does anyone pee as strong as they did pre-neo?

My first urologist scanned every visit; I'm not sure why these two don't. I'm reluctant to change doctors midstream--these are the guys who did the surgery. I'm reminded of the principle that no one cares about your health as much as you do. My dealings with the military health care system is that you have to tell the doc what you want done. Perhaps that applies to the civilian system too.

Chris

Drew,

What they are going to do is a flow test first. You will pee into a funnel looking thing that measures the volume and output. Then they will check to see how much is left with the scanner.

If you are still at 30 min to 1 hour intervals, I'm guessing they know control is limited still so they may just be checking to be sure on the retention.

They may review the kegel exercises with you. If not, you may want to ask them to--just to be sure you are doing them correctly and strengthening the right muscles.

Mike

I'm still pretty new with my neobladder, and am at 30 min - 1 hr voiding intervals during the day, and seems like less than 100 ml is about all I'm going anyway. I think they are going to do one of these scans at my 12/3 appointment as they say come needing to urinate urgently. (Boy what a laugh that is for me at this point)