And so it continues, both day and night
February 4th 2009 07:07
It’s been an interesting few days. After getting off antibiotics for almost a week, I had to go back on them last Friday. That was pretty much expected.
But on Saturday I had a bit of a surprise when I got up. For those who aren’t aware of these things, when you’re wearing a catheter, you have to attach a ‘night bag’ to it when you go to bed. This is because the day bag isn’t big enough for the expected flow during the night.
The surprise was that when I got up, instead of the night bag being fairly full as usual, it was virtually empty. Not a very good sign, but as it happened, I’d only been up for a short while before things started moving in the urine department again.
My wife and I got on with more of the garden clean-up we’d been at for most of the week, and in general I was okay. Not particularly sore, and things going as usual.
However, I had a bit of a snooze in the mid-afternoon, and after that things weren’t so good. Started having another one of those sessions where urgency to go to the toilet starts, and the pee comes out of its normal place instead of going through the catheter. And then another later on, and another.
Finally called the District Nurse department (they come out and check on ‘patients’) and about nine o’clock, when I was feeling rather cold and not well, they arrived. Between them they did a check to see if the catheter was blocked (it was, with some ‘sediment’ in it; they managed to unblock it) and then topped up the water level in the balloon that holds the catheter in place. I’d noticed some pink flecks in the catheter tube at one point; this was also evidence of sediment.
This wasn’t a particularly drastic procedure, and I felt much better afterwards.
However, about 1.30 am I felt the urgent need to pee again and did. Hmm. Lay in bed debating whether I should take a trip to the Accident and Emergency Department to get things checked out more thoroughly. Didn’t. A warm bed wins over going and sitting in the A&E waiting room almost any time.
Sunday was fine – felt better than I had for a few days.
Monday was fine – until I got home from work and the urgency thing started again, and carried on during the evening. Again the debate about whether to go to A&E, particularly as my wife said she thought the a particular catheter was only supposed to stay in for a
minimum of six weeks before being changed, and I was coming up seven weeks. She checked it out on the Net. Where else?
Finally we decided to go to A&E; it was ten past ten in the evening. Things got worse: I kept needing to go to the toilet, but couldn’t do more than a tiny dribble. And nothing much was going in the bag. Finally got into the A&E ward after about an hour or more, by which time I was very uncomfortable: painful all around my bladder area, and very sore where I was trying to pee and failing.
Eventually, as these things do, the doctor came, and we began the delightful process of sorting me out. He decided it wasn’t even worthwhile trying to see if they could unblock the catheter (the nurse had given it a brief try) and he (expertly) put in a canula for morphine and antibiotics and fluids.
The catheter was going to come out – and hopefully that would unblock the system.
Well, it did, of course, but to ensure things were going to function okay, another one had to go in. Painful coming out, even more painful going back in again. Though at least it’s a brief nasty pain in each case, not a prolonged one. I haven’t got used to it yet.
The relief is enormous, of course. And the reason for the blockage was evident once they got the old catheter out: absolutely chocker with garbage, including the pink flecks I’d mentioned to the District Nurses on the Saturday.
After that I had to lie there for more than two hours, while the antibiotics went in through an AV (half an hour) and then fluid was pumped through very slowly to clear the system (a good deal longer). We finally left around 4.30 am, me feeling much the worse for wear, but functioning.
We both slept in till getting on for lunch time in the morning, having rung our respective workplaces to tell them we wouldn’t be in at the normal times. I felt quite good in the afternoon, and managed to work without problem.
Today, however, reaction set in, and I got up feeling very sluggish, queasy, very uncomfortable about going to work, and low in spirit. I went to work all the same, and gradually through the morning picked up some energy. It hasn’t been my best day, however. Monday night’s pain and anxiety had obviously taken it out on me: the body just hadn’t quite got round to dealing completely with it.
Photo by xparxy
But on Saturday I had a bit of a surprise when I got up. For those who aren’t aware of these things, when you’re wearing a catheter, you have to attach a ‘night bag’ to it when you go to bed. This is because the day bag isn’t big enough for the expected flow during the night.
The surprise was that when I got up, instead of the night bag being fairly full as usual, it was virtually empty. Not a very good sign, but as it happened, I’d only been up for a short while before things started moving in the urine department again.
My wife and I got on with more of the garden clean-up we’d been at for most of the week, and in general I was okay. Not particularly sore, and things going as usual.
However, I had a bit of a snooze in the mid-afternoon, and after that things weren’t so good. Started having another one of those sessions where urgency to go to the toilet starts, and the pee comes out of its normal place instead of going through the catheter. And then another later on, and another.
Finally called the District Nurse department (they come out and check on ‘patients’) and about nine o’clock, when I was feeling rather cold and not well, they arrived. Between them they did a check to see if the catheter was blocked (it was, with some ‘sediment’ in it; they managed to unblock it) and then topped up the water level in the balloon that holds the catheter in place. I’d noticed some pink flecks in the catheter tube at one point; this was also evidence of sediment.
This wasn’t a particularly drastic procedure, and I felt much better afterwards.
However, about 1.30 am I felt the urgent need to pee again and did. Hmm. Lay in bed debating whether I should take a trip to the Accident and Emergency Department to get things checked out more thoroughly. Didn’t. A warm bed wins over going and sitting in the A&E waiting room almost any time.
Sunday was fine – felt better than I had for a few days.
Monday was fine – until I got home from work and the urgency thing started again, and carried on during the evening. Again the debate about whether to go to A&E, particularly as my wife said she thought the a particular catheter was only supposed to stay in for a
Finally we decided to go to A&E; it was ten past ten in the evening. Things got worse: I kept needing to go to the toilet, but couldn’t do more than a tiny dribble. And nothing much was going in the bag. Finally got into the A&E ward after about an hour or more, by which time I was very uncomfortable: painful all around my bladder area, and very sore where I was trying to pee and failing.
Eventually, as these things do, the doctor came, and we began the delightful process of sorting me out. He decided it wasn’t even worthwhile trying to see if they could unblock the catheter (the nurse had given it a brief try) and he (expertly) put in a canula for morphine and antibiotics and fluids.
The catheter was going to come out – and hopefully that would unblock the system.
Well, it did, of course, but to ensure things were going to function okay, another one had to go in. Painful coming out, even more painful going back in again. Though at least it’s a brief nasty pain in each case, not a prolonged one. I haven’t got used to it yet.
The relief is enormous, of course. And the reason for the blockage was evident once they got the old catheter out: absolutely chocker with garbage, including the pink flecks I’d mentioned to the District Nurses on the Saturday.
After that I had to lie there for more than two hours, while the antibiotics went in through an AV (half an hour) and then fluid was pumped through very slowly to clear the system (a good deal longer). We finally left around 4.30 am, me feeling much the worse for wear, but functioning.
We both slept in till getting on for lunch time in the morning, having rung our respective workplaces to tell them we wouldn’t be in at the normal times. I felt quite good in the afternoon, and managed to work without problem.
Today, however, reaction set in, and I got up feeling very sluggish, queasy, very uncomfortable about going to work, and low in spirit. I went to work all the same, and gradually through the morning picked up some energy. It hasn’t been my best day, however. Monday night’s pain and anxiety had obviously taken it out on me: the body just hadn’t quite got round to dealing completely with it.
Photo by xparxy
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