rick50

great to hear you are recovering well from your surgery, what size catheter are you fitted with?

when will you be discharged back to your hotel, how will that occur, will they take you back and make sure you are safely in your room? And it sounds like you may find walking difficult after your procedure

that sounds very wise, best to leave the catheter alone until you are healed. I'm sure you will be wide open after having your bladder neck, sphincter sectioned. Did they remove part of the prostate too? Speaking as someone with an enlarged prostate it would be good if they removed some or all of yours' at the same time to avoid any future problems as you get older

The change in colour of the urine in your bag from cheery red to normal urine shows you are healing well- good news. I wonder if a larger catheter would open you up a bit more, but I guess it depends if you want a constant dribble or that inability to hold on? Perhaps ask?

what size catheter are you fitted with, are you able to see your urine bag, is it very messy ?

Have they run through exactly what they are going to do in the operation?

Best wishes for the procedure. Have they said how long it takes and how long you will be 'out' for? Is the hotel close to the hospital?

After wearing a holey foley on and off for a couple of years I finally summoned up the courage to try a stent. I have been using a modified foley stent size Ch16 with partially inflated balloon for a couple of months now, with removals to change the stent and clean it. The pic shows one of the stents, the balloon had deflated somewhat due to leakage from the stopper in the fill tube, although I soon realised I was limited on the size of balloon I could pass due to my enlarged prostate. Early attempts using blue strimmer cord as a stopper on the fill line tended to leak and deflate the balloon, but I went to the green line and filed one end of the cord to help it in and this lasts for several weeks. I make the stent approx 12.5cm long and have never experienced migration into the bladder. The end of the stent rests behind my balls where the stent bends upwards toward the prostate. I have also used a 14mm diam. O ring instead of the balloon to retain the stent in the bladder with good results, although this can be harder to get in and is a bit scratchy to remove. When I first started I would wake up at about 3.30am with a partially full bladder. My nappy was wet so I had been incontinent, but the bladder struggled to drain without clenching the muscles to squeeze urine out. I'm not sure why this occurred. It may be coincidence, but I was then using a stent around 15cm long, but when I shortened it to 12.5cm I slept right through the night and woke up in the morning with a saturated nappy and an empty bladder. I've had total night time incontinence ever since- happy days! If anyone has any advice or questions then feel free.

my boxers were thrown in the bin and replaced with terry towelling lined plastic trainer pants , nappies and plastic pants

what size tube are you using in the video clip, also it looks more pliable than I have seen

Hi dlnoir I managed to turn the tubing in as you said, but then the internal bore is blocked despite attempts to smooth it as you suggest. What diameter tubing are you using there?

does anyone know how you turn the tubing back inside itself? I've tried with a crochet hook and have been unable to achieve it so far.

Yes, I guess there is that risk

There is a medical paper you can find online where doctors took a group of elderly males who were reliant on long term urethral catheters due to chronic urine retention and were suffering the usual UTI's. They fitted them with Memokath urethral stents that were extra long so they passed through the bladder sphincters and prostate. After treatment the patients were totally incontinent and their bladders drained freely into diapers.

Perhaps it would be worth asking for a medical urethral stent to be inserted as a first step. There is medical precedent for this procedure so the urologist may be happier to go down this route of treatment. The Memokath urethral stent was used successfully in Japan to make elderly patients incontinent who relied on catheters due to enlarged prostate so their bladder drained into a diaper. This avoided UTI's from the catheter and the general problems of catheterisation. They used the longer Memokath (7 or 8 cm) to pass through both inner and outer sphincters. The Memokath is also removable. I wonder if the medics might look at this more favourable as it has been done before and is not permanent as is surgery so it would overcome their concerns about you changing your mind?