I was expecting my catheter to be removed Thursday. The urologist that I was referred to was a nice elderly man. He started talking about learning to self-cath which was totally unexpected by me. I was quite plain that I was surprised by his comments. I thought this was going to be a straightforward removal of the catheter.
The upshot is that because I am also having constipation, he wants me to wear the catheter another week and work on getting the bowel regular. On the night of the 22nd, I can remove my catheter. If things look OK on the 23rd when a nurse measures residual urine, I will resume life as normal. If not, I will be taught to self-cath as wearing an indwelling catheter for long periods is not good. He is concerned because the spinal area where the operation took place controls bladder and bowel functions and may be messed up.
I am taking a low dose of hydrocodone which can cause constipation. I am going to try transitioning to tylenol this weekend. That and drinking lots of water should help. My bladder was working fine before the lumbar decompression. My expectation is that it will resume normal functioning; wearing a catheter and changing from leg bag to large bag and back again is definitely not fun. I suspect this is just a temporary problem. Let's hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment