Should I wear for heart procedure?

[diapernh]

I was born with a congenital heart defect which was repaired when i was 12. I am currently going on 43 and have been having more intense followup care for my heart. I am being followed by the local children’s hospital cardiology team (you are a patient of theirs for life).

Recently i have had more testing done and have come to the crossroads where intervention is going to be needed. I have had EKGs, Echos, MRI’s, etcetera. Now they are wanting to do a heart cath and i will need to stay in the hospital overnight.

Here’s the thing, all my appointments and procedures i have been padded up, and honestly would rather be padded up when i go in for the heart cath.

Should I go in padded up? Or not?

If asked, what should i say as to why i am wearing?

Do you think it is already in my records?

What about family? My mom knows i wear, but nobody else does.

 

YES I will be bringing my teddy bear too.

If I were to go padded, i would of course bring my own stock of diapers that i use at home as I know and trust what i use.

 

Thoughts, comments....

[ValentinesStuff]

Talk to the medical staff. Trust me they've seen stranger, and they won't talk about it.

[oznl]

I've had many, many, many adventures in the cardiac cath lab thanks to a congenital heart defect ?  First up, they're going to go in via your right femoral artery and that's right inside your "nappy zone".  Post-procedure, you're going to have a wound there that has a fair old risk of bleeding so it's going to get some pretty close attention for a while and THEN it will need to be kept clean.

If I have to have another cath-lab adventure, I'm not sure what I'd need to do but if I turn out to be IC (and I am close these days), I suspect I'm going to have more than one cath in me...

Most cath procedure I've had I've either just been heavily sedated or knocked out briefly and allowed to surface into heavy sedation so that I can respond to them if needed.  It's a bizarre experience but not too bad. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I have had a cardiac cath: No big deal.

If you are not IC then just don't. It adds one more unnecessary set of variables and they might think you are a mental jockey. Keep the kink at home. Why give the Uptights a leg to stand on as well as dissing those who fought to make this sort of thing legal and from whom we benefitted?

I went for a month and a half without so much as a second of LG time

[rusty pins]

I agree about keeping the diapers at home this time due to what oznl and Christine said about where they have to go up through your artery and adding variables.  When I had a knee replacement I had a cath in me until the next morning, the idea being they told everyone going through knee and hip replacement that they want them to get a good night sleep after the procedure.  I have a friend who has had several stents put in for his heart issues and yes, when they go up through your artery there is a risk of bleeding afterward.  You want to keep that area clean and dry to promote good healing.  Unless you wear for actual incontinence needs, I'd give diapers a break for a few days.  Even if you have incontinence, you can manage with a catheter for a day or so in the hospital.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

When they did the cardiac cath on me they went in through the wrist after a strong dose of a local anesthetic. After surgher I had a urinary cath

[feralfreak]

one might ask if the doc can do the wrist, otherwise ask the doctor, but if its just for fetishy stuff i agree, leave it at home

[oznl]

16 hours ago, Little Christine said:

When they did the cardiac cath on me they went in through the wrist after a strong dose of a local anesthetic. After surgher I had a urinary cath

I didn't even know that radial artery access was a thing!  I'm just a cath-lab-user, not any expert.  I do remember once asking the nurse if they could use the femoral artery on my LEFT side as my right side was still a bit sore from the one before.  Nope..   Apparently the right side was "optimal" for my procedure.

I was never given a urinary catheter for a cath lab procedure although I always had to lay flat for 4 hours after the procedure to minimise bleed risk.  I don't think i could do that today!  I bled once anyway:  got a painless purple bruise that ran all the way from my crotch down to my right toes.  Visually it was spectacular!

Most times I had some other work done before for which  I was knocked out during the incision.  I had one incision done under local: it was painless though.  They then injected me with something anyway to make sure I was nice and still and compliant.  It's so strange being on a theatre bed with a fishing rod up your artery and yet you're slightly bored, very sleepy and keep dozing off.  I tried to watch the cardiac action on the monitor they'd thoughtfully left nearby but it was too hard to stay awake.

Still all in all, fairly tame procedure, nothing to freak about.  Not like the open heart stuff...   Hope it goes well for you.  I think I've had it 11 or 12 times.

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

3 hours ago, oznl said:

I didn't even know that radial artery access was a thing!  I'm just a cath-lab-user, not any expert.  I do remember once asking the nurse if they could use the femoral artery on my LEFT side as my right side was still a bit sore from the one before.  Nope..   Apparently the right side was "optimal" for my procedure.

I was never given a urinary catheter for a cath lab procedure although I always had to lay flat for 4 hours after the procedure to minimise bleed risk.  I don't think i could do that today!  I bled once anyway:  got a painless purple bruise that ran all the way from my crotch down to my right toes.  Visually it was spectacular!

Most times I had some other work done before for which  I was knocked out during the incision.  I had one incision done under local: it was painless though.  They then injected me with something anyway to make sure I was nice and still and compliant.  It's so strange being on a theatre bed with a fishing rod up your artery and yet you're slightly bored, very sleepy and keep dozing off.  I tried to watch the cardiac action on the monitor they'd thoughtfully left nearby but it was too hard to stay awake.

Still all in all, fairly tame procedure, nothing to freak about.  Not like the open heart stuff...   Hope it goes well for you.  I think I've had it 11 or 12 times.

 

I  did not get the urinary cath for the test, I got it with the "open heart stuff: Cardiac Artery Bypass Graft. The Cardiologist said it would be a triple. When I came around, they said it was a qaud. I said "What is this: Buy 3 get one free". I was offered the choice of stents or CABG and told the stents would not do well. The interesting part of that was that the Cardiologist could do the stents but he could not do the bypass. I was and am still in very good shape with a strong heart muscle and no effects on the heart. I am the kind of person who likes to settle things for once and for all so I want for the biggie. I learned  just how good sape I was in when I had the report read to my. I never even got to the angina stage. Although, given my choloesterol readings over the past 34 years, it did come as a shock to me. So now I've taken down Cancer (Follicular B-cell Lymphoma Stage III that was supposed to be recurrent and came back twice but has not been seen since 2005) and Cardio Vascular Disease (and in a walk-away). I'll probably get done in by a paper cut

[oznl]

17 hours ago, oznl said:

I didn't even know that radial artery access was a thing!  I'm just a cath-lab-user, not any expert.  I do remember once asking the nurse if they could use the femoral artery on my LEFT side as my right side was still a bit sore from the one before.  Nope..   Apparently the right side was "optimal" for my procedure.

I just need to correct my own record here.  I was changing myself this morning after getting up and realised that all the scarring is at my LEFT femoral artery so I got that back to front.  I must have asked for the RIGHT and got told "no", it has to be the LEFT.  Either way, for femoral access, it would be right on the legging of your diaper so a diaper would be a no-go unless the OP is keeping their femoral artery somewhere different in their leg.

14 hours ago, Little Christine said:

I  did not get the urinary cath for the test, I got it with the "open heart stuff: Cardiac Artery Bypass Graft. The Cardiologist said it would be a triple. When I came around, they said it was a qaud. I said "What is this: Buy 3 get one free". I was offered the choice of stents or CABG and told the stents would not do well. The interesting part of that was that the Cardiologist could do the stents but he could not do the bypass. I was and am still in very good shape with a strong heart muscle and no effects on the heart. I am the kind of person who likes to settle things for once and for all so I want for the biggie. I learned  just how good sape I was in when I had the report read to my. I never even got to the angina stage. Although, given my choloesterol readings over the past 34 years, it did come as a shock to me. So now I've taken down Cancer (Follicular B-cell Lymphoma Stage III that was supposed to be recurrent and came back twice but has not been seen since 2005) and Cardio Vascular Disease (and in a walk-away). I'll probably get done in by a paper cut

I ended up having open heart to fix the problems that repeatedly couldn't be fixed through the cath lab.  Fortunately, no bypass required, just structural repairs.  I remember that I was lulled into a false sense of security by the relatively cruisy cath-lab staff.  The open heart stuff is a big hit.  I came through it fine but I don't ever want to have to do it again.

I got the obligatory urinary cath after the operation for a couple of days.  It was a bit weird and uncomfortable as my bladder kept spasming constantly with massive pee urges that were of course irrelevant as I could do nothing about them.  Interestingly my problems with urgency and an inability to sleep through the night without getting up started pretty much the moment I got back from hospital (it was probably happening while i was IN hospital too but I was on a big fentanyl holiday and don't remember).    I guess I've solved those with 24/7 nappies for now.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

The bypass included splitting the sternum in two and stopping the heart. It took 5 hours. The new anesthetic protocols are something. When I came around I was instantly chheent and feeling no pain

[pantypaul69]

I went in for a triple and got a quadruple. And yes they split the sternum. I woke up and couldn't see, apparently the anesthesiologist had put something in my eyes. They gave me warm rags to get rid of it. I was yelling what did you do to me I can't see. 

[spark]

I went in for a trabeculectomy, and choose to go in diapered.   I did for the security and knew it wouldn't interfere with the surgery.   They were operating on my news, and the diapers kept me grounded.  I can address the question if it comes up, and it did help keep me comfortable.

BTW- the opthamologist doesn't know (or hasn't asked) that I wear diapers, even though I've worn to most of her appointments..   She knows my medical history, but has never noticed the thick padding.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

On 9/7/2020 at 8:40 AM, rusty pins said:

I agree about keeping the diapers at home this time due to what oznl and Christine said about where they have to go up through your artery and adding variables.  When I had a knee replacement I had a cath in me until the next morning, the idea being they told everyone going through knee and hip replacement that they want them to get a good night sleep after the procedure.  I have a friend who has had several stents put in for his heart issues and yes, when they go up through your artery there is a risk of bleeding afterward.  You want to keep that area clean and dry to promote good healing.  Unless you wear for actual incontinence needs, I'd give diapers a break for a few days.  Even if you have incontinence, you can manage with a catheter for a day or so in the hospital.

Just beause people, especially professionals, don't SAY anything to your face. Does not mean that they donot THINK it or even discuss it among themselves. Bringing your kink to places like work, medical events or the like is frivolous and spells out in letters that ar 10 feet tall S E L F  A B S O R B E D  N A R C I S S I S T. at best or something else at worst and they might just treat you as an immature person, not having any way of knowing if you are right in the head. My docs  and nurses knew and know, from mu speech and conduct that they can be straight up with me. What would have happened if I had brough Andrea or Lisa with me? Sure some of the nurses MIGHT have thought it was cute. But could they have approached me as a rational adult, aware of the situation, and up to it. and when you are in Cardiac ICU. it is serious, pedal-to-the-metal business and really no place for free-styling

[deewet]

I have been into surgery for a couple of Knee replacements and some heart issues as well, and have learned from the first time urinary caths were used on me of the impacts they make, not pleasant and lasting more than a day or so.  After this lesson, I have insisted that I not be put on a cath but rather padded, and I am much better for it.  Do the docs or nurses care, doubt it but in the end it is about my comfort, not theirs!

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Now, whin I went to adjust the text above my image link, it ate my siggy image link and I cannot fix it