U.K. PARURESIS TRUST: Re: self catheterisation

I haven't posted on here in ages also, i should maybe find an old post and do an up date, some people may find my progress interesting.

I sympathize with you sir!! I'm getting to a good place with AP now, it's not really holding me back much anymore. When I was 'getting there' I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to use these catheters, being as some people on here say that just knowing they have them helps them go.

That made sense. A big part of it for me was the catastrophizing. "if i can't go now, this is going to happen then this then this..." But by having a sure thing fall back like a catheter... your good right?

I made an appointment to talk about getting one and the good people at Urology proceeded to prod and probe me... Urodynamics is a wonderful thing isn't it? A joy I believe I'm scheduled to repeat later this week

at any rate, I finally got some. The nurse made an appointment to show me how to use it.

My lord it was painful! It seemed to be the same catheter as posted by one of the chaps above. It was the weirdest nastiest thing. The worst bit being the final push into the bladder!!! Then of course is the feeling your about to wet your self for hours afterwards. And of course the aforementioned stinging pee.

At first, like you i thought that if i was out and about and ran into a problem I could fall back on this and go about my business and that confidence would eventually lead to me not having to use them at all... But after using one of those it's evident my night would be over and the only place I'm going is home... and to bed!

I went for my urodynamics... Long and short, straight after I was given a box of catheters and instructed to urinate as normal first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but directly afterwards catheterize into a measuring jug and take note of the amount.

I did this for two weeks and it was a flat out nightmare! After the first week I went back to the GP because i literally couldn't go into work. I had to do this thing to my self in the morning and it was long after noon before things started returning to normal. Even after that I was a little messed up. Then I had to do it RIGHT before I was supposed to go to sleep. Trying to fall to sleep through the stinging sensation that your about to wet your self isn't as easy as it sounds let me tell you...

Anyway, the GP gave me these needless syringes... let me stress there is no needle in these things, just a nib at the end. Inside is an anesthetic gel, you shoot about a quarter or more of the contents down your urethra, massage it as far down your penis as you can, wait a couple of minutes for it to take effect then catheterize. This made things a bit better. But the pain of entering the bladder was still pretty massive...

It wasn't a good two weeks for me lol. But it has to be said there was a dropping off of the pain. Towards the end, while it hurt still, it didn't hurt nearly as much as the first few times, and the recovery period became shorter and shorter.

Talking to the male nurse about this, he suggested it was my age. I'm 27 now, and was 25-26 at this stage. He suggested that older people (no offense guys) weren't as sensitive down there so didn't experience as much discomfort.

I'd always thought they down played the amount of pain involved so it wouldn't put people off turning up for appointments. But from your responses it seems I've had an uncommonly bad experience.

My advice would be to hound your GP for some therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the way my friend. AP usually comes with a lot of baggage, a therapist can't be your pee buddy, but they can help you enormously, especially with anxiety and stress. The workshops here are great too, if you haven't been on a couple do so! But meeting up with someone every week who want's to hear about what you've done and is constantly challenging and pushing you is a massive help!

As for the catheter. I made a judgement that the pain was definitely not worth the effect. But I'm in a pretty good place right now. I'd say i'm somewhere below the shy end of the normal spectrum, but it's not stopping me from doing anything anymore. Maybe your in a different boat? Maybe it's worth muscling through the pain? I saw a big decrease in the amount of pain by using twice daily for two weeks. I can reason that after a month or so the pain and effects would probably be as negligible as experienced by the above chaps. It's worth getting some of those syringes though.

Sorry this is a bit long. Hope it helps and good luck!