[Survivor35]

Just looking for opinions here. I do intermittent self caths every 4 or 5 hours, depending on my intake. I had mastered cathing from the last chair that I had, which had a J2 back on it. I have my new quickie GT, which I have not managed to do this yet, which has landed me right back to having to be home every 4 or 5 hours... not good for a social life. We are planning a trip to disney, and I am wondering how in the hell.... I talked to my doctor about learning how to do an indwelling catheter for times like those, when I know I will be out for long periods of time or what have you. She has turned this idea down adamately, telling me that I will just have to have someone with me to help me, but she does not want me using the indwellings as long as I am capable of using the intermittents. The problem is, unless I am at home and near a bed I can lie down on, I'm not capable.
Would it be worth trying to go over her head, or to another doctor? Is this something that some others practice, if they cant cath from their chairs, or am I just being lazy??? I really have tried, damn near coming out of my chair a couple of times... advice anyone?

[keeptrukin]

I have a few comments here. I had the same problem with cathing out in public. Never could get it to work right. I now have a suprapubic. My doctor was hesitant and they are not for everyone. I had a completely flaccid bladder (no muscle spams at all). I won the battle. I would say if your set on an indwelling then talk about a supra pubic. Most doctors are agianst them if you are able to cath yourself. If your doctor has completely dismissed the idea then find a urologist that also has spinal cord injury experience, they tend to be more empathetic. As far as having a foley cath for periods of time I can tell you once you put one in you will be hesitant to take it out. I had one for 3 months and that is way to long. A suprapubic is reversable so it's not a life long commitment like some other bladder surgeries. Like I said before though it depends on what your bladder is doing. Last but not least, with my suprapubic, I have had leakage. It only happens when my line is clogged or is kinked, but non the less happens.
Hope this will help you.
KT

[hondat]

I have a similar issue. It takes alot out of your socal life as well as your engergy levels if you have to keep going to the loo/bedroom heaps.

I have heard of people putting an indwelling cath in for like a day if they go out but no longer as you run the risk of infection (unless it has been done by a nurse) I dont think its lazy its pratical. Dont take my word for it thought coos i would hate to see you do something harmful

[scasey]

I know exactly what you are talking about! I have run into that dilemna a few times too, usually around travel. I just did it myself. I ordered a couple of leg bags, that came with some tubing and used a self catheter. I used medical tape to make sure it would hold together, and stay where it belonged. And it worked out well. It takes some planning - for example you have to make sure you wear clothing that wont squish it or anything! But all in all, it worked for me. Yeah, there's always the UTI risk, but I figure d trying to self cath in some yucky public restroom was way more of a hazard than this method. Good Luck.

[percepied]

Even though I was discharged doing IC, the rehab hospital gave me several foley kits for situations where I would be unable to IC. (I think these situations were mostly prolonged illnesses.) Since I had to replace my own foley every 2 weeks while in the hospital, I have been trained and don't need an assistant to do the insertion and removal. My choice is certainly IC as this has reduced the occurrence of UTI's. But if getting to a private place to IC was going to be a constant issue, I would certainly switch -- temporarily. (I might also bring some Levaquin just in case.)

[scasey]

I'm not so sure I'd be so quick to rely on one type of antibiotic. You can really be doing yourself more harm with that, I think, than leaaving a catheter in you for half a day or so. I have to self cath, and virtually every time I take a urine test, it shows positive for a UTI, even in I'm usually completely unsymtomatic. Just goes with the territory. But I have had two borderline kidney infections, so I need to be careful. I'm glad that I have a really good urologist! He always takes the time to call and discuss whether we should give the infection a chance to run it's course, or go with medications. It's going pretty well. I'm lucky he's on my dream team!

[RYAN68]

Here's what I do, I had got a couple of indwelling catheters, with a 5cc balloon on em, I also got a length of tubing and connected it to the catheter, at the end of this tubing is a valve off of a leg bag. I run this tube down the inside of my pants and leave the valve down by my shoe inside of my pants, this tube is cut to length of my leg. There is a velcro strap that goes around my thigh that holds the hose close to my thigh and keeps slack so I do not pull out the catheter. So when I am out and about, all I do is goto a accessible bathroom, through my leg up on the toilet and open the valve and wait to empty. I don't even use a leg bag, just use my bladder as the bag. If I told my urologist he would prolly shoot me......but so far it works out great, and I almost dont have to worry about wetting my self anymore.

Just when doing this, you need to make sure that you goto the bathroom more often, so that way you do not run the risk of filling up too much, and having your bladder back up into your kidneys.

I'm not saying that this will work for you, but it works for me, even when I'm out at a party and drinking beer like its my job, works good.

[Santa Cruz Soul Surfer (LRO)]

RYAN68, on Jan 15 2007, 07:04 AM, said:

Here's what I do, I had got a couple of indwelling catheters, with a 5cc balloon on em, I also got a length of tubing and connected it to the catheter, at the end of this tubing is a valve off of a leg bag. I run this tube down the inside of my pants and leave the valve down by my shoe inside of my pants, this tube is cut to length of my leg. There is a velcro strap that goes around my thigh that holds the hose close to my thigh and keeps slack so I do not pull out the catheter. So when I am out and about, all I do is goto a accessible bathroom, through my leg up on the toilet and open the valve and wait to empty. I don't even use a leg bag, just use my bladder as the bag. If I told my urologist he would prolly shoot me......but so far it works out great, and I almost dont have to worry about wetting my self anymore.

Just when doing this, you need to make sure that you goto the bathroom more often, so that way you do not run the risk of filling up too much, and having your bladder back up into your kidneys.

I'm not saying that this will work for you, but it works for me, even when I'm out at a party and drinking beer like its my job, works good.

Huh....Not a bad idea, i'll have to give that a try sometime.