Hello Clayton, and many thanks for your helpful reply. I will take your advice and look for a urologist this week. I have been hesitating because my experiences have weakened me considerably, and I know I could not face more surgery.
The catheter is routinely placed here for abdominal surgery such as mine, or for long ops. so that the bladder won’t open on the operating table, and it is usually removed in one or more tests – trials without catheter – before the patient leaves hospital. I have heard that the bladder loses tone when a catheter is in place for too long, and it is unable to empty itself.
A couple of years ago I had a string of painful UTIs and eventually I was unable to pass urine and was rushed off to hospital for emergency catheterisation. It was in for 10 days and then I had a cystoscopy under GA. The surgeon filled my bladder with water before I was woken up, and the pain was severe, but it worked, and the bladder just let go all over the recovery trolley!
The cystoscopy revealed nothing amiss, and there was no stricture according to my consultant. His diagnosis was that I had a large, floppy bladder and retention of urine causing the UTIs, and I was referred on to learn how to self-cath.OUCH!! Fortunately we found that I wasn’t in retention. The UTIs, it seemed, were caused, as I thought, by self-infection via the pads I have had to wear for faecal incontinence for 30 years since I had a hysterectomy. I find this only a relatively minor inconvenience, compared to the sheer hellish pain and the inconvenience of the urinary catheter.
In view of this additional info, do you still think I might be able to get rid of catheter?your experience was dreadful, and I’m o glad it ended well for you.
Christina