Stents and Why I Don't Use Them Anymore.

[Ferix]

I want to talk about my experience with stents and why I don't use them anymore.

 

If you are new to the forum or haven’t heard of stents, they are basically a tube placed in the urethra that allow unrestricted passage of urine past the sphincter muscles. There are a lot of other threads in this forum that discuss stents in further detail.

 

I have been a long time user of stents with many successful uses of stents over the span of 15 years. It first started out with catheters and then quickly went to stents as I found them more comfortable and I loved that I could feel urine passing without control. I was obsessed with my stents. I loved the feeling of having no control and the feeling of my bladder having an open drain into my diaper. It was the best.

 

I was fine with the risk for more than a decade but as careful as I was, I still made mistakes and needed to be seen by a doctor. The risk I felt wasn't that high because a UTI is something people can get quite regularly and it's pretty easily treated if caught early enough, which I could recognize within hours of it starting. I even had amoxicillin on hand in the event that I did get an infection. However, with all the care and precautions I took I still got a UTI and the amoxicillin wasn't strong enough to fight off the infection.

 

I went to the ER the day I started having a UTI. They gave me stronger medication which took care of the UTI within a day and there was no harm done. This was a turning point though. I had enough with the risk of infection because it wasn't the first time I had seen the doctor for this.

 

I understand that there are people that never have issues with using catheters or stents but I have been unable to figure out what I'm doing wrong as I have had issues with using both.

 

I decided to stop, even though there were parts of me that felt like I could learn how to do it better or that the risk wasn't that bad since I could treat any problems quickly. It just wasn't worth the risk.

 

Honestly, it's been a big relief. Stents took up a ton of my bandwidth as I spent a ton of time researching, developing, crafting, and using stents.

 

Now that I've taken a step back from it all, it's nice not to have the stress of needing to use stents or the constant worry of the risks I put myself through. It's also helped me accept my current level of (in)continence as I have noticed changes to my control.

 

I’ve been 24/7 since 2017 and my control has noticeably worsened to the point where I do need diapers and I try to keep my perspective optimistic as I look forward to experiencing my control worsen with time.

[Loveable_guy]

Hey I understand. Should you change your mind at a later date consider what works for me.  My experience with a UTI is don't wait for it to happen, Whether it by catheter play or using a stent I start a regiment of cranberry juice or cranberry pills the second I start with either. Over twenty years of play only one trip to the docs for a UTI and that was before I learned to be proactive with the juice or pills. Oh yea there was the one trip to the ER to remove a stent that got away from me. Again lesson learned, use a stronger attachment point and a retrieval line that can't slide inside.

[Enthusi]

I’ve never tried a stent before. Trust me I’ve considered it many times over. I have tried catheters quite a few times. I find that reality never matches expectations.  It starts off fun, but after a few hours, my urethra feels sore and I don’t like that I can’t move around as easily, and I worry non stop about UTIs. I usually end up taking it out after a few hours because I lose the desire to continue.  Maybe it would be different if I wasn’t already incontinent, or if I only wanted temporary incontinence.   All of this is to say I am tantalized by the idea of a stent, but your post reminds me to think carefully if I want to go down that path. 

[Ferix]

5 hours ago, Loveable_guy said:

Hey I understand. Should you change your mind at a later date consider what works for me.  My experience with a UTI is don't wait for it to happen, Whether it by catheter play or using a stent I start a regiment of cranberry juice or cranberry pills the second I start with either. Over twenty years of play only one trip to the docs for a UTI and that was before I learned to be proactive with the juice or pills. Oh yea there was the one trip to the ER to remove a stent that got away from me. Again lesson learned, use a stronger attachment point and a retrieval line that can't slide inside.

Thanks. You're right on the cranberry pills and that they can help prevent an infection. It's been a few years since I last dabbled with stents that I mentioning I used cranberry pills as a precaution was something I forgot to add. I usually took pills about an hour before stent insertion as well as I drank a lot of water before and during stent use to keep things clean. Even still, cranberry pills are a weak countermeasure against UTIs because if the viral load is too high, it wont be enough to stop an infection. I had gotten my infections while using cranberry pills.

My experience was mostly good with stents, it was just the few times that weren't good was enough for me. Preload on cranberry pills and water were things added to my list of steps I needed to do to make stents work properly and safely. It's nice that I no longer have to consider or worry about any of those steps. 

 

 

5 hours ago, Enthusi said:

I’ve never tried a stent before. Trust me I’ve considered it many times over. I have tried catheters quite a few times. I find that reality never matches expectations.  It starts off fun, but after a few hours, my urethra feels sore and I don’t like that I can’t move around as easily, and I worry non stop about UTIs. I usually end up taking it out after a few hours because I lose the desire to continue.  Maybe it would be different if I wasn’t already incontinent, or if I only wanted temporary incontinence.   All of this is to say I am tantalized by the idea of a stent, but your post reminds me to think carefully if I want to go down that path. 

Catheters were pretty uncomfortable for me too. It limited my mobility and the longest I could wear them was for a day at a time. There were a few times I slept with them but that made sleeping miserable and I usually couldn't make it through the night without taking it out.

[Old_PA]

Thanks for the post Ferix. It may also be a question of "Been there, done that."  I have been experimenting with catheters for 23 years and usually find them totally comfortable. Also more recently with 'holey foleys' and stents. Experimenting with stents is ongoing, so far not yet 100% comfortable but a correctly made 'holey foley' can be.  These days I always take a Hiprex tablet each 12 hours when something is in place, followed by a cranberry capsule each 12 hours for 48 hours after removal. Never had UTI using Hiprex. Also there is a course of suitable antibiotics on hand if needed. Presently, it is a matter of forced abstinence, being overseas for a few weeks.  

[Ferix]

10 hours ago, Old_PA said:

Thanks for the post Ferix. It may also be a question of "Been there, done that."  I have been experimenting with catheters for 23 years and usually find them totally comfortable. Also more recently with 'holey foleys' and stents. Experimenting with stents is ongoing, so far not yet 100% comfortable but a correctly made 'holey foley' can be.  These days I always take a Hiprex tablet each 12 hours when something is in place, followed by a cranberry capsule each 12 hours for 48 hours after removal. Never had UTI using Hiprex. Also there is a course of suitable antibiotics on hand if needed. Presently, it is a matter of forced abstinence, being overseas for a few weeks.  

I tried holey Foley on a few occasions and went right back to stents because of the discomfort.

I appreciate your input. I'm confident in my decision to stop all together. I'm not looking for suggestions or convincing on how to make things safer. I trust my own experience and judgement, as it's something we all do when it comes to using stents and catheters. 

[Old_PA]

Well said, Ferix.  I have no wish to change your mind.