A recent surgical procedure (AAA, but that’s another forum) required use of a Foley catheter – a Fr 14. The procedure went as planned and I awoke feeling fine – and hungry from not being allowed to eat for nearly two days. A few hours after wolfing down a salad and something they called pot roast, I developed pain in my abdomen.
My first thought was the salad was having trouble passing through my intestines. Soon I was calling for painkillers as the pain worsened.
Finally a x-ray was taken and my neobladder alerted them to the fact that something wasn’t right. This information was on my chart but because I was not on a urological floor, nobody knew what a neobladder was. They attributed the lack of urine collection to kidney shutdown.
Fortunately the staff urologist was called and within two minutes he realized the Foley was clogged and extending my bladder, causing the pain. He removed 1,100 CCs of urine, the first 200 of which were mostly mucus. My pain went away and nurses were given orders to flush the catheter twice per shift.
Unfortunately, the nurse the urologist showed the procedure went off shift and neither of the night shift nurses who replaced her knew how to flush the catheter. I finally ended up doing it myself.
The lesson is that medical professionals know little outside their field of specialty. My vascular surgeon and his merry team were clueless. Whoever put in the Foley was unaware that a neobladder produce mucus and went with too small a catheter. Nurses are not trained in all aspects of patient care.
The patient must know his or her conditions and insist on proper care. If you have a neobladder you certainly know how to flush it. If a healthcare professional isn’t doing a procedure correctly, be forceful in explaining it to them or even demonstrating how to do it.
On my part, I had never experienced abdominal pain due to urine retention but had previously had pain after eating raw vegetables. If it happens again, I’ll know.
I hope this helps someone avoid experiencing excruciating pain.