flare after uro visit!

[carla_2004]

After my surgery last week (bladder sling) and the post surgery flare, I was feeling pretty good this morning. Then, I went for my post op uro appt.

While there, they collected urine via a cath specimen. Having the catheter in my bladder felt like they were taking a scalpel and scraping the inside of my bladder. I am usually pretty stoic, but I cried from the pain. I described it to my uro that it felt like I had a d&c on the inside of my bladder. 12 hours later, my bladder feels very, very inflamed.

I am dealing with it by my usual coping method, taking pain meds, prosed, and my trusty heating pad.

What do other Ic patients feel when they are being catheterized? How would you describe your pain, if any? Does it vary from catheterization to catheterization- depending on how gentle the medical person is? I know some on the bb cath themself, isn't this hard or painful?

hugs, Carla

[kadi]

Yes, being catheterized hurts me too. I usually ask for a pediatric catheter, and tell the doctor up front that being catheterized hurts (like, duh!), so they'll try to keep it especially steady. Pyridium usually helps that day & for a few days after. Also I drink distilled water when I'm really flared, either bladder or urethra. For me, an ice pack helps more than heat, but for some people it's just the opposite. For a few days I also rinse with cool, clean water when I urinate. Helps with the pyridium staining and cools the area off.

I hate that symptom a lot!!! Hope you feel better soon :kiss:

[Julie Smith]

:pray:
I sure do hope you feel better soon. Sounds like you're doing all the things you can to feel better. Rest, don't overdue it.
Sending warm healing thoughts your way,
Julie:pray: :angel: :kiss:

[kelly McC]

hurts me too. Sending you tons of huggs and hope your feeling better soon:grouphug: :grouphug:
Kelly

[ICNDonna]

I think catheters always hurt. I find if I concentrate on relaxing, it does help. The more relaxed I am, the less pain.

And cathing myself is much less painful than having someone else do it.

Donna

[carla_2004]

Thanks for all the responses :kiss:

The flare has subsided a bit, much more tolerable than a few days ago. It still feels like the nurse scraped the inside of my bladder raw, plus there's a couple of places that now are tender to press on.

I continue to be amazed by how stoic ICers are as a group. The idea of self cathing gives me the willies, but I did learn how to inject my ERT hormones after my hysterectomy. Donna, was it hard to learn how to do this? Do you use a mirror?

Next time, I'll remember to relax more and do the LaMaze breathing bit. Thanks for the reminder!

Wishing everyone a flare free day!!

Hugs from Carla

[Iris]

Hi, I think the word to describe my feeling having a catheter, is definitely a big OUCH:toosh: not one of my favorite feelings I must admit. Hope you will be feeling better soon, keep us posted and take care, hugs Iris.:hi: ::rolleyes:

[TiaTia]

Carla...

I have to self-cath on occasion, and I understand your hesitancy. Like Donna, however, I would much rather do it myself than have anyone else do it. I think knowing our bodies better than anyone else makes it easier, and I think we are also more gentle about it than others (for obvious reasons). When I first started to have to cath at home because of retention, my husband did it for me. I was scared to try it myself, and he had learned from the nurse who did my instillations. Well, he always tried to be very gentle, but it was still very painful, and, bless his heart, I could tell that he wanted to help but hated causing me pain. So I learned. I used a mirror at first, but found quickly that I didn't need one. I know EXACTLY where my urethra is (as do we all), and the mirror just made things more cumbersome. I also would first put a bit of lidocaine in with one of those plastic needleless syringes. That helped a lot. One of my best friends tapes a small, compact-type mirror to the inside of the toilet seat so that she can see what she is doing, if you find that a mirror is necessary.
Anyway, hope that helps. You can get the doctor to write a prescription for the lidocaine syringes, by the way. And as someone else said, a pediatric catheter works well. This may sound strange, but I actually have also used a pediatric feeding tube. My old uro used to use them and gave me a couple one time. We thought it was a pediatric catheter, but turned out it was a feeding tube.

Good luck...I am sure you will do fine with it. I once had an ornery old ER nurse, who obviously hated her job and had horrendously long fingernails, try and cath me once. She almost didn't live to see the end of her shift ;) Anything is better than that...:D

[carla_2004]

TiaTia,

I appreciate the description of your self cath routine. I stand by my previous statement that self cathers are brave souls!:bow: :bow:

Thanks for responding:angel: Carla