During my recent surgery I narrowly averted what would have been a really unpleasant situation involving my urinary catheter.
First of all, I was pleased to note that my hospital has changed the way they do things regarding insertion and removal of the NG tube and the urinary catheter. Namely, they don't insert either the NG tube or the urinary catheter until you're under general anaesthesia - so you don't have the unpleasant experience of having to experience these invasive items being inserted into your body. The other improvement is that upon awakening, the NG tube was already removed, in contrast to my prior surgeries in which the NG tube was left in place for several days. The urinary catheter however was left in place for a couple of days. From what I've read on the internet, leaving the urinary catheter in place for more than 2 days risks urinary infection; so for those on immunosuppressant meds, this is something to be avoided if possible.
My urinary catheter was removed 2 days post-op. I struggled mightily with attempting to regain urinary function after having it removed. It turned out, as I suspected, that my difficulty was due to the meds in my epidural, which tend to slow urinary function (once my epidural was removed at post-op day 4 my urinary function went back to normal).
Now getting to the point I wanted to make though - on the first day of having my urinary catheter out on post-op day 2, I was really maddened by the hospital staff, which came around with a nasty surprise for me, namely they came with a machine which measures the fullness of your bladder - a machine sort of like a little ultrasound machine. I hadn't been briefed about this ahead of time, but they come to check to ensure that your bladder is not getting too full, othewise they want to "re-catheterize" you. Let me just say that the urinary catheter was the worst part of my surgery - having resulted in untold pain, scabs, and pus (I think in large part because they, in my opinion, used a catheter too large in diameter) - so I was in no mood to be "re-catheterized". They checked my bladder and found it to be in the "danger zone" and they gave me 45 minutes to bring it down to a reasonable level (ie they gave me 45 minutes to pee out a bunch of my urine). I immediately sprang into action by ordering my epidural level to be reduced, on the hope and belief that this may restore some bladder function. I then went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and put my right hand under a warm spray and spent the next 45 minutes in fits and starts voiding about 600 ml of urine into the container, thereby narrowly averting "re-catheterization". I requested that they leave my epidural at the lowered dosage for the next couple of days. My pain level did increase slightly as a result of the reduced epi level, but my bladder function improved somewhat, so it was a good tradeoff for me. For reference, my epidural was originally at 10 and I had them lower it to 8. I'm not sure what the units of measure are, but I am certain that these numbers represnt an hourly flow-rate, and I also know that these are standard/universal flow numbers that you can discuss with your anaethesia team (I was told that typical flow rates for patients range from 6-14). And if you want to focus on bladder function, you'll need to remember not to hit the epidural button, which will deliver an additional 2 units of meds on-demand. At the lowered rate of 8 units/hour, I was usually able to pee 600 ml within maybe 5 minutes, rather than the 45 minutes it took when my epi was at 10. And although I didn't have to use the shower method, I definitely kept a big cup of water on hand to dunk my hand in; not sure why hand in water is so helpful for peeing, but it is, big-time.
I wanted to pass this info on to those of you who may despise urinary catheters. Perhaps you can be prepared from the get-go to monitor your epi level, your urinary level, and fluid intake level. The hospital staff say that any bladder level over 400 ml is in the danger zone. I think that this is a preposterous level to apply across the board. I know I've held a little over 1 liter in my bladder on countless occasions. However, they may have a point when they say that they don't want the bladder to expand too much and place pressure on the swollen intestinal tissues. Not to get too carried away with this topic, but for those of you who have a particular appreciation for this topic, you may want to pee into a container at home sometime when your bladder is really full, so you can gauge how big your bladder is and what your own personal danger level may or may not be.
Cheers!
First of all, I was pleased to note that my hospital has changed the way they do things regarding insertion and removal of the NG tube and the urinary catheter. Namely, they don't insert either the NG tube or the urinary catheter until you're under general anaesthesia - so you don't have the unpleasant experience of having to experience these invasive items being inserted into your body. The other improvement is that upon awakening, the NG tube was already removed, in contrast to my prior surgeries in which the NG tube was left in place for several days. The urinary catheter however was left in place for a couple of days. From what I've read on the internet, leaving the urinary catheter in place for more than 2 days risks urinary infection; so for those on immunosuppressant meds, this is something to be avoided if possible.
My urinary catheter was removed 2 days post-op. I struggled mightily with attempting to regain urinary function after having it removed. It turned out, as I suspected, that my difficulty was due to the meds in my epidural, which tend to slow urinary function (once my epidural was removed at post-op day 4 my urinary function went back to normal).
Now getting to the point I wanted to make though - on the first day of having my urinary catheter out on post-op day 2, I was really maddened by the hospital staff, which came around with a nasty surprise for me, namely they came with a machine which measures the fullness of your bladder - a machine sort of like a little ultrasound machine. I hadn't been briefed about this ahead of time, but they come to check to ensure that your bladder is not getting too full, othewise they want to "re-catheterize" you. Let me just say that the urinary catheter was the worst part of my surgery - having resulted in untold pain, scabs, and pus (I think in large part because they, in my opinion, used a catheter too large in diameter) - so I was in no mood to be "re-catheterized". They checked my bladder and found it to be in the "danger zone" and they gave me 45 minutes to bring it down to a reasonable level (ie they gave me 45 minutes to pee out a bunch of my urine). I immediately sprang into action by ordering my epidural level to be reduced, on the hope and belief that this may restore some bladder function. I then went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and put my right hand under a warm spray and spent the next 45 minutes in fits and starts voiding about 600 ml of urine into the container, thereby narrowly averting "re-catheterization". I requested that they leave my epidural at the lowered dosage for the next couple of days. My pain level did increase slightly as a result of the reduced epi level, but my bladder function improved somewhat, so it was a good tradeoff for me. For reference, my epidural was originally at 10 and I had them lower it to 8. I'm not sure what the units of measure are, but I am certain that these numbers represnt an hourly flow-rate, and I also know that these are standard/universal flow numbers that you can discuss with your anaethesia team (I was told that typical flow rates for patients range from 6-14). And if you want to focus on bladder function, you'll need to remember not to hit the epidural button, which will deliver an additional 2 units of meds on-demand. At the lowered rate of 8 units/hour, I was usually able to pee 600 ml within maybe 5 minutes, rather than the 45 minutes it took when my epi was at 10. And although I didn't have to use the shower method, I definitely kept a big cup of water on hand to dunk my hand in; not sure why hand in water is so helpful for peeing, but it is, big-time.
I wanted to pass this info on to those of you who may despise urinary catheters. Perhaps you can be prepared from the get-go to monitor your epi level, your urinary level, and fluid intake level. The hospital staff say that any bladder level over 400 ml is in the danger zone. I think that this is a preposterous level to apply across the board. I know I've held a little over 1 liter in my bladder on countless occasions. However, they may have a point when they say that they don't want the bladder to expand too much and place pressure on the swollen intestinal tissues. Not to get too carried away with this topic, but for those of you who have a particular appreciation for this topic, you may want to pee into a container at home sometime when your bladder is really full, so you can gauge how big your bladder is and what your own personal danger level may or may not be.
Cheers!