i am having the REZUM Procedure on friday. I understand that 4 days with a catheter is required. any advise on how to minimize discomfort?
Usually a Foley Catheter, watch for leaks, if there is no blood and you feel that you can urinate without it, have it removed.
I never had a catheter before and the taped the bag to my leg. That was a big mistake!!!
You will swell up down there like you have never seen before!!!
But it will go down and when it does it will pull like hell and hurt like hell!
So make sure when they tape to your leg they don’t tape it to tight!!!
i had one for three weeks recently , they really arn’t that bad . i felt no pain at all , a little bit awkward at times but for only a few days it will be fine .
Only problem i had was i kept moving the little lever accidently which empties the bag and it leaked all over the bed a couple of times . But thats because im very clumsy . One second of discomfort when it is removed . No problem at all .
Ask for a night bag - it is a 2+liter bag with a very long hose. Put the bag in a trash can or bucket next to your bed. There will be a clamp on the hose that you attach to the side of the bed for stability which keeps pressure/weight off your end of the hose. This makes sleeping MUCH easier.
During the day:
Pick up some sterile wipes for cleaning, soft gauze squares, Desenex and cloth tape.
At least twice a day (morning and evening - more if you are bleeding/leaking), clean the end of your penis with the sterile wipes, then put some Desenex on the tip and wrap with the gauze, putting some strips of cloth tape on the edge to hold in place. The Desenex (diaper rash cream) helps with the irritation.
Make sure the day bag has a valve in it that prevents the urine from flowing backwards, this will help keep you from getting a UTI.
The positioning of the bag on your leg while moving is important. You do not want any tension on the hose as it could cause a tear in the tip of your penis. The safest location is high on your thigh so the tip of your penis is pointing up. Gravity will cause the bag the slide down, so you have to be careful with that. Some think it more ‘logical’ to have the bag as low as possible so it is always below the tip, the problem being that it is more likely to put tension on the tip. I’ve tried it both ways and over time, the low bag can cause some issues if not careful. I had a catheter for 4 weeks, so I had to try a number of things and talked to several men who wear them for extended periods of time.
Good luck - it really isn’t that bad, just a little uncomfortable. Take it easy, don’t be afraid to find what works for you.
thANKS EVERYONE !!!
One last thing - be prepared for nocturnal erections. They can be real uncomfortable with a catheter. Pretty much every night that would wake me up with an ‘OMG’ moment. One would think our body would be smarter than that, but some stuff - ‘just happens’.
There are some good suggestions here. One more thought: I self-cathed after my Rezum procedure, and it made the recovery process really easy. Fortunately there wasn’t really much extra sensitivity in the urethra after the procedure, and even that slight difference went away by the next day.
Of course there is the one little issue with my suggestion: you have to learn how to self-cath before the procedure so that you’re ready for it. It sounds like such a scary thing until you’ve done it once. All you need is some good instructions.
Keep in mind that the swelling of the prostate after a procedure such as Rezum may last for more than just a few days. Being able to self-cath gives you the freedom to empty your bladder a couple of times a day (or more often if needed) and yet go on with your life without carrying something around with you.
Good luck to you. Hope all goes well.
I second the recommendation about learning to self-cath and having some available. It isn’t difficult when done properly and sure beats a trip to the ER. (been there done that too!).
No advice but I wanted to take a moment to wish you good luck. Please be sure to let us know how it went. Best Wishes…
Blimey , erections for me were never going to happen with those pipes inside me !
One would think…but damn, talk about unpleasant…
Ken, wouldn’t self catheterization hurt especially when everything is swollen and tender? wouldn’t that cause injury when the tissue is cooked ? what if it is too swollen and one cannot pass the catherter ?
thanks for all the support. it was not too bad but they found some scaring which made the procedure more difficult. there was some pain i would say 3 on a scale of 10. i had the catheter inserted which should be removed on tuesday. there was some bleeding from
my penis but it seems to have subsided. it does hurt when i pee but it is ok .
On the contrary, the urethra isn’t harmed noticeably by the procedure. And the swelling of the prostate itself doesn’t make much difference at all in resistance.
The steam stays in the prostate so the tiny holes that the needle makes are the only ‘injury’ to the urethra. Those holes heal up within a day or so, according to my urologist.
I self cathed without pain right afterwards.
Aaron,
I hope all continues to go well for you. When you get the Foley catheter removed on Tuesday, don’t expect to have the full flow immediately. It actually takes several days, perhaps a couple of weeks, for the swelling in the prostate to go down. And after the swelling goes down, then the good part starts happening. When your body starts to remove the dead cells in the prostate, and it starts to shrink, the pressure on the urethra will lighten up and the flow will improve. Hang in there.
so why do they leave a foley for a few days after Rezum if there is no swelling? There are reports that people pull the foley out and they go into retention and end up in the ER and the foley has to be re-inserted. I assume the prostate tissue swells up and pushes the Urethral wall into the lumen causing narrowing.
also the flow worsens initially and then takes a few weeks to get back to normal and then improves. Isn’t the flow an indication of how patent the urethra is?
thanks Ken
catheter real pain. cant wait to have it removed on tuesday
I know the epithelium is intact but because of the swelling one will be pushing against a swollen prostate against an intact epithelium into a narrow lumen with the catheter and I was assuming it would be painful