This site has one goal – to help those who must live with a urinary catheter. Whether you have a urethral or suprapubic catheter for just a few days or weeks, or must wear one long-term, I hope to pull together all the useful information, tips and suggestions that I can find to make your life a little easier. By the way, just to get this out of way up front – I am not a medical professional, doctor or nurse. I am a patient who is living with a catheter.
The main reason I put this site together is that I recently had to have a suprapubic catheter put in, but had a difficult time finding information to help me understand my new reality. There are a few forums out there, but the ones I could easily find were incredibly unresponsive and mostly inactive. I searched and read as much as I could find on the internet about how to best deal with all the logistics, lifestyle, and uncertainty. But what little I could find was either hyper-academic (hard to understand for regular, non-medical people like me), unhelpful, or just plain wrong.
So after six weeks, one urinary tract infection, two emergency room visits, and one catheter “up-sizing” procedure, I felt like I had pulled together a fair amount of useful information and experience that could be helpful to other folks. [UPDATE: Now it’s 4 years later:). I continue to update this site and engage with the community that’s built up around it. I’m doing my best to keep everything up to date. Thanks!]
My hope is that this site can help to ease the stress for those new to living with a catheter by providing easy-to-understand information that is also easy to find – basically the stuff that would have made my life easier (and less painful) had it been out there when I first came home with a tube sticking out of my abdomen and my “exobladder.”
My goal is to supplement my own experiences with excellent and valid medical information dealing the latest on things like urinary catheters, types of catheters (Duette, Foley, Intermittent, coudé or Texas/condom catheters), surgical techniques for things like urethral strictures (my particular issue), enlarged prostate procedures, UTIs etc.
I am obviously not going to know everything or have all the information, so I hope that folks who visit this site can help keep this information current, correct and comprehensive.
Cheers!
Ken
*Speaking of my not knowing everything, note this DISCLAIMER. I am NOT a doctor or nurse, or any kind of medical professional. All advice and opinions are mine.