abmichael

I've been using an 18fr Silastic foley with the holy foley method now almost full time for almost 16 months. I change it every 4-6 weeks. I use a wood burner (similar to soldering iron) to melt two holes about 3.5" from the balloon edge opposite the fill stem. I rub the iron on its side back and forth across the holes to smooth them, then clean with a wet wipe. I check with the syringe to make sure I haven't damaged the fill line. Then I shower, glove up, apply cleanser to the foley where I modified it, then to my private area, then I lube the cath and insert it and fill the balloon. Then I use a catheter plug to plug the end. I modify the plug so I can push it completely inside the cath so it isn't sharp against my skin. And that's it. (I will say it took several tries and some discomfort early on, but it's good now and I enjoy it.) I stay well hydrated, drinking more than a galloon of water per day, soaking through 3-4 quality diapers. Occasionally, I'll get an unwelcome feeling in there, it's more common the longer I've had it in. Usually if I push and flush things down there, it goes away. My theory is that it's sediment that accumulates on the balloon (I see iit when II remove it) and breaks off. Otherwise, it's painless unless I go a long time without drinking fluids, then it gets dry and can burn. As others have noted, there is some sense of control at times, in some positions it will fill and exert some pressure, but any cough, fart, sneeze, etc definitely leads to leaks, and it definitely drains. I've learned to have a diaper ready after showering or after using the toilet and standing up. When on the toilet, I hold the end of the cath in the crease of my leg/groin area. Since it's silastic, I can use lotions, ointments, etc. no problem. I didn't realize there was DB corruption of old posts. I'll have to repost my pictures of the modification process at some point.

When I worked a corporate job, I kept diapers individual bagged in grocery bags in my desk drawer. If I had to change, I would grab one and head to the bathroom, change, put the old one in the bag and drop it in the trash. No one would question someone carrying a grocery bag around... could be lunch, whatever... doesn't matter. When I was at home on vacation, I could change most of the time in my room and put diapers into the trash in the garage. But when we would go out for the day, it was a challenge. I did end up on a surprise visit to my brother's house and was leaking. I even grabbed one of my nephew's diapers and put it inside mine to buy some more time. Weirdly, toddler diapers don't seem to have fluff all the way back anymore? Anyway, my thought on the way to deal with that was something I heard suggested for people who wear pullups and don't want to have to remove their pants to change. Wear two pairs, one over the other. When the one is full, go to the bathroom, remove it, pull the other one up, and you're good to go. Wouldn't have worked at my brother's, but would work in public. It does make for a thicker diaper, but "oh, the horror!" :-)

A bit of neosporin helps. I find that letting it go down and loop upward is best for me. I'm doing the holey foley method and find if I don't drink a lot and it becomes dry, it starts to burn. As long as I keep drinking, it's good. A hydrogel catheter is another option.

No guarantees on this, but it worked for me using a regular, unmodified cath draining into diapers for 3 weeks straight.

Here are the only pictures I remembered to take. The first two are the spring and nylon rings I used. I forgot to take any of the first stent. The last picture is my 2nd version from the silastic foley that I like. The bend comes only from the spring inside, but obviously wasn't enough to keep it in place.

You don't need a significantly smaller cath. I thought that too. I initially tried a 16fr as that's standard size. I had a lot of irritation and found that going to an 18fr was actually far more comfortable. Too small allows it to move around inside and irritate things. Going up in size did increase the pressure the urine came out at times, but this wasn't really a bad thing. I don't know what the limit is, I think I could do a 20fr but probably not past that. If you've ever dealt with an actual leaky pipe or something and tried to tape it, you know water will find a way. I think that's true here.

Obviously my experience is limited, but I would think for the most part, the tendency is to want to push it out, so it's more a matter of keeping it hooked inside. There are reports of them slipping inside, I'm not sure if it's because there is a tendency for that, or if it's related to

Has anyone done this with a malecot catheter as the base? I'm thinking of trying that. I have had great success with the holey foley method. My first stent try ended badly. It took a while to figure out what went wrong. I used silicone tubing from McMaster that is meant for fluid pumps so it's soft and 100% pure. But it turns out that it's also heatproof. I was unable to melt a hole or round the edges of it with my soldering iron as I have done with catheters. I had this idea that I would get tightly coiled stainless steel spring to put inside so it couldn't be squeezed closed. I bent it to add the bend at the top. For the bottom, I pushed in some nylon rings I got that I was able to fit around the spring, Getting the spring inside was hard, and I ended up cutting the tubing too short so the spring was only slightly inside. I had bought some PETG rod to use to push it in. Without much length before the spring, it didn't insert very far into the stent. So when inserting it, I believe the rod came out and was unable to make the turn. I thought I had just reached a tight spot and continued to push gently... until there was blood. I freaked a bit, extracted everything, scrambled to put a diaper on to prevent additional drips of blood on the floor and then cleaned up the evidence. Surprisingly, urinating wasn't significantly painful, but I continued to see blood in the diaper some hours after that. A bit of research suggested the prescribed treatment was a foley to divert urine away from the injury. Luckily I had a hydrogel one so inserted that (unmodified) and took apart an aquarium air check valve that I inserted in the end so it was a one way valve. I'll document that separately, it worked great, I wore it for 3 weeks like that, emptying into a diaper without a problem. It was nice in that I could keep it up front during the day and move it toward the back at night since I'm a stomach sleeper. But there was little feeling to it so it was just becoming wet without much stimulus which wasn't as nice as the holey foley method.

In theory, you can sense some resistance between moving the cath in your urethra and encountering the sphincter. You may not be able to fell it with your hand, but it may feel different. If you can detect where that is, you can mark that, then insert it, inflate the balloon, and pull to make sure it's seated. Mark that. Keep in mind that the first mark is from the end of the cath, and the second mark is from the base of the balloon. So you need to adjust for the distance between the point and the base of the balloon. That way, you should be able to determine the distance from the external sphincter to the inside of the bladder. If you measure that distance from the ballon, you should put the hole after that. If the hole is between the sphincters, it won't work as well because the external sphincter is the one you control. Hopefully that makes sense...

I was asked how I modify catheters. I had inconsistent results trying to cut a hole and have gone

That's likely what happened. I had to get a ruler and measure. It was further than I thought. Keep in mind, you're measuring from the base of the balloon, not the tip. I use the width of my hand (not including thumb) for reference which is about 3.5 inches.

I'm on anti-depressants, so I don't get many natural (unstimulated) erections anymore. But in terms of positioning the catheter, I've found it best to go down , curve it around and place the end pointing up. The end is probably at or below my penis, the loop is below that. I think the loop is important as it provides slack for movement. For a few days I wasn't positioning it specifically, just letting it hang down at change

This is long but sort of summarizes what I've learned/experienced so far...

I've got one in again, only did one hole, I was thinking I should do one on each side, but with the two lines to the two balloons it's risky. At least for the one there is a blue line on the catheter I can use for reference. There are positions where it doesn't seem to drain which is frustrating but also somewhat more realistic in the sense that when I move to a different position there is no stopping it. The first night, I had several instances where the need to go would suddenly arise, followed by going without control which was cool, but that didn't last once things calmed down I guess.

Here is a diagram

I mostly got there for night...

I've worn for 15 years at multiple corporate jobs. I've kept diapers (individually bagged) in my desk drawer, I've occasionally needed to take one to the bathroom and change. You just summon your confidence, grab it and go. Everyone is doing their own thing, no one cares that you're carrying a grocery bag and may be headed for the bathroom. No one is looking to

I've got a Duette 16fr in currently and it is working well. It's silicone so is more stiff, but the double balloon seems to be a key for me. Drainage at night seems to work mostly as expected. I ruined the first one tryign to cut holes by folding it over as suggested, because of the two balloons, there is a tube on either side. I had better luck just cutting where the blue line is.

When I got a new doc, I said it was congenital, I wear diapers, not a problem. They asked if I was seeing a urologist, I said there wasn't a need to. I suppose at some point in the future, there may be a reason, and I will when there is. For now, the only difference is labs don't involve urinalysis, it's done via bloodwork. I pay for my own diapers.

I've tried foley caths in the past and always had trouble with it moving around and that causing irritation. Silicone seemed a good idea, but since it's more rigid, turned out to be worse. But I recently had the best success to date. I used a hydrogel coated 16F, made three holes 4" from the balloon. Inserted it cleanly, pulled it tight, folded the end over and put a zip tie on, then cut off the rest. This made for very little sticking out and worked well for an evening on the couch watching TV. While I had never made it through the night in the past due to irritation, I felt this might be the night. But while irritation wasn't an issue, I couldn't get good drainage at night. I mostly sleep on my stomach, but even on my back, I had to push to get flow. I had consumed lots of fluids, so more than once, awoke on my stomach with a series of spasms pushing urine out. It was intense, but also a bit enjoyable. Frustratingly, it didn't seem to amount to a lot of urine, so I wasn't much better off after.

Come on guys... heard of Google? Search for "Popular" and "Brook"... and it comes right up. Apparently it was a show on the WB network 1999-2001. http://www.jumptheshark.com/p/popular.htm http://www.retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/1606-popular/ DVDs on Amazon... Season 1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001I55S...427897-6797646/ Season 2 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006J28D...427897-6797646/

Had you not worn diapers much before this? Sounds like you jumped in the deep end! I have worn 24/7 for 3-4 years now and still have control but I don't think about it much anymore, so I often can't tell you if I've wet or not. I do wet at night though, that was relearned with practice. But over the years I have had my share of leaks and tried all the diapers on the market. I use Molicare Super Plus during the day and usually cloth at night. As a side or stomach sleeper, cloth is the only reliable method, though I'll wear a Molicare on occasion. I won't go into great detail, but in general, Molicare Super Plus or Abena X-Plus are worth the extra cost because you can wear fewer per day. Wearing only Molicare's, I can typically wear 3/day. One all day at work, one in the evening, and one overnight. If I have drank a lot before bed, I will leak usually out the front since I'm on my stomach most of the time. Always annoying when you leak out the front and the back is dry, but that's life sometimes. Doubling a Molicare will prevent this but at twice the cost. With all disposables, don't pull the tapes super tight or they will slip. Some are more prone to failure than others. I cannot keep Abriform X-Plus on without adding packing tape, but Molicare is usually fine (though in the past there were lots of problems, the new design they use works fine.) Wearing plastic pants over plastic diapers does nothing to contain leaks unless there is something in between to absorb it. Depending on the extent of the leak, I've heard some use a pair of underwear in between, for night use I have used an "all in one" from Babykins which is a waterproof cover and diaper in one. The more water you drink the less concentrated your urine will be, the less (if any) it will smell, and the more effective the gel in diapers will be. I avoid high gel diapers like Molicare Super (not plus) because while it theoretically holds more, in practice the gel is far more unstable and clumps in the bottom of the diaper once wet. Also, in Abriforms, the gel captures the wetness right away and won't accept more, so later wettings need to cross the diaper to the back to find dry gel. This can result in leaks when plenty of the diaper is still dry. One thing that can help this is to not tape the diaper as tight so as the gel expands it is not pressing tightly against your skin. Having some available space leaves room for it to run to another part of the diaper. Rashes are best prevented by shaving/trimming down there. Some use a blade, I use a beard trimmer and just keep it short. Having hair there is the quickest way to a rash. Obviously desitin is the best way to go for that. It's 40% zinc oxcide, most others are 20% or less. Also, diaper rash is a fungus so athletes foot creams are very effective in my experience. You might make changing kits like I do for work... I take the plastic grocery bags we all accumulate and put a Molicare in a bag then fold it and stack several in another bag and keep it in a cabinet in my cube. Then if I need a change, I just take one with me to the bathroom. Looks like a grocery bag, and the bag is a good way to dispose of the wet one. The fact that I don't return with the bag is not noticed. The trick is simply to act natural, not look guilty or nervous. This takes practice and experience though... lots and lots. But I can tell you that unless you draw attention to it, people will not notice no matter how bulging your jeans are. Just get a size or two larger, or baggy/pleated ones and it's fine. For nights out drinking or to a movie, don't hesitate to double up. Take a diaper and cut a series of diagonal slits maybe an inch or two long down the middle of the diaper. Put this one on first (obviously!) and then put the second one on over it. If they are high gel diapers, make sure not to take the second one too tight or it'll tend to leak out the side. For buying diapers, check out: www.xpmedical.com www.magicmedical.com www.abaip.com which will all generally be cheaper than HDIS. The last one is owned by an incontinent gentleman so feel free to ask questions. Michael