Dan,
My surgery I’m told took about 3 hours. However, I think an hour of that was prep work while I was out (shaving, drawing stuff, idk). My doc only scheduled me for 2 hours.
I only stayed over night at the hospital. I was still classified as an out-patient since I didn’t actually stay at the hospital for 24 hours.
Yeah, the catheter is something I think everyone dreads. I know I was dreading it as well, even though I’ve had plenty of them in me before. After my DVIU I had an indwelling Foley and it was terrible. However, this one seems alright. One important thing to remember is that the Foley needs to be taped to you. For instance, mine is taped to my right thigh, same level as my penis and has about a foot or so of slack between the tip of my penis to the tape point. What this does is allows much more movement without your catheter actually moving inside you. When I got my first Foley they didn’t do that (and I had no idea I should), so that’s a lesson learned.
Catheter pain isn’t too bad. As I type, it’s just a little uncomfortable where the catheter comes out the tip of my penis (a little tugging on it right now). Internally, I don’t really notice it. It’s a bit of a surprise when you first get it, so be ready for that. You’ll feel like you really need to pee, when in actuality you already are. If you start noticing some blood color stuff coming down your catheter, make sure you have it taped well. That was the reason my last one bled like that (the damn thing was spinning and moving all around in my bladder. Oye). Also, 2-3 weeks seems excessive to me. I’m getting mine out at the 10 day mark, and I’d argue I could probably get it out at the 1 week mark. There have been studies on removing at the 3 day mark (that seems early) that show most cases will be healed enough at that point to not leak. Removing it sooner may be something to bring up with your doctor.
The surgery site itself is just dull achy pain. To be honest, I’ve had much more pain with my hands and erections with the catheter in place (ouch!) than with the surgery point itself. That being said, be sure to support your scrotum with a jock strap or something similar and place gauze between your inner thighs and your stitches. That will serve a dual purpose of supporting your scrotum (expect that to be much larger than you ever thought possible) and stops the stitches from scraping things (and vice verse).
We’re definitely in the same boat on the pain vs stricture. I can tolerate a lot so long as i know I’m not creating a new problem. I haven’t read anything online that would suggest people tend to re-stricture from a Foley. Haven’t seen one mention to that actually. The only thing I’ve read with catheters is the insertion and removal sometimes causing strictures. Let me know what your doctor says about Foleys and stricture. Especially wondering about the night time erections since they hurt like mad.
On a more positive note, I pooped! It was very painful and labored unfortunately (and bloody!). I highly recommend not letting it get to day 6 before sending in the extra strength laxatives. No reason to be fighting constipation on top of your surgery recovery.