[WilliamCraig]

Excuse the length of this post, if it comes out long... I've tried to minimize as much as possible.

About a month and a half after my injury, I was using a catheter and amazingly, for the first time, felt that I had to pee and pissed everywhere. A couple of times after that happened, I tried to use a catheter and sure enough the same thing happened.

So, I got feeling back and expected it all to come back, but it never came back all of the way for some odd reason. I can feel when I have to pee and can somewhat push it out, but can't hold it. So, basically, when I feel that I have to pee, I have about 30 seconds or so to make it to a bathroom. And for almost 8 years I've dealt with a weird program that I pretty much just winged up myself...

I try to remember every few hours to make myself pee by pushing on my bladder and then pushing like hell to get it out. Those few times a day that I either forget to do the routine or simply don't want to, I just wait until I feel that I have to go and then high-tail it to the bathroom. At night, I go to sleep and hope to God that I don't have an accident (though I do, sometimes). When I get out to go to places like Wal Mart, friend's house, or the fair, I (once again) hope that everything goes as planned and no accidents occur.

The most horrible thing about the program is that when I am having bowl problems, which is pretty often, I have a tendency to pee much more often and have less time to get to the bathroom (it goes from 30 seconds to about 15). This greatly increases my accidents.

The first 4 years or so after my injury, I enjoyed the program... I was single and spent most of my day gaming on the internet or playing console games. However, it is different now. I got with a girl who has 2 kids and we had one ourself... it logically follows that my bladder program has not, will not, and never will work for me anymore.


I've tried using those condom leg bag things (which is what doctors always tell me to get), but I never could get the pee to drain down the hose unless I stood up. While I was at a basketball game, I all of a sudden realized my condom leg bag had literally exploded due to the fact that I couldn't get my pee to even begin to go down the hose to the bag. That was about 7 years ago and I haven't touched one since.

I came to this forum and saw that people were posting about the good that has come out of using leg bags. How is this possible for you guys, yet my pee couldn't even start to go down the hose? Am I doing something wrong?

Also, do you guys know of something better I could use... or am I stuck with using an apparently useless leg bag for the rest of my life?


WC

[hockeydahc]

kink in the hose? the "valve" or flap going into the bag works off of pressure and seals shut after entry so to speak. not always does the tube clear for me either, but maybe just maybe there was a fold in the flap causing a dam in the flow. it's happened to me once, at home luckily, but they've been mighty handy for extended driving(in case of traffic) and long busy days. without seeing the item, hard to say for sure what it was.

[kewlcatkez]

Just a thought, but have you been able to try different manufacturers/makes of tubing and conveen/external 'condom' caths?

Maybe that would help, worth a try. I know that many manufacturers will send samples ( i got a box of intermit.caths)

K