Catheter problems

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Hey guys

Quick question. My dad is currently a home care patient with a catheter. He also has a colostomy that seems to make noises and leak smells all at the wrong moments :uhoh3: anyway my problem and so is the home care nurses problem is that he goes through catheters like crazy. It is always leaking or clogged and its very hard to put in (his member has sucked in kinda like a prostate or hernia problem but neither are there) he is only 50 and its kinda weird he is having suck issues. Any ideas on how to be able to prolong the catheter? We tried bigger ones he has a 30 cc in right now. Thanks

hey guys

Sorry I haven't been back here since I posted my life is sooooooo extremely hectic lol. My dad does need the catheter, he has retention. He is a parapeligic they think some form of MS but they don't know cause its so hard to diagnose. He has spasms but they are his legs that are spasing, I don't think his bladder does, he takes baclofen a lot a day (great medical terms lol) I am not sure the tubing size, I would assume an 18. He does have an infection now and that is the cause of the mucus and sediment but he always has problems with it even without the infection lol. I will tell him to increase his fluids. He drinks probably 2-3 liters of water a day. He also has CHF lol so he is kinda restricted too.

As for the colostomy. We are going to a wedding tomorrow and I am just begging God that it doesn't start leaking smells. lol He has the blue drops but they don't seem to help. I will try the asprin along with the drops. The aid is not sticking a pin in it I made sure of that before lol. It gets kinda annoying lol my mom walks around with a can of lysol air freshener and my dad yells that he poop doesn't smell like roses. lol It gets old though. Anyway thanks for all your advice. Iwill try the asprin and the blue liquid at the same time and see what happens.

There is a lot of literature that supports the use of cranberry capsules to prevent UTI's. The juice is ok but one has to drink quite a bit to be effective. The cranberry caps are especially useful in preventing UTI's caused by E.coli. I took care of a male MS pt that had similar problems as your Dad and he ended up with a suprapubic cath. Might want to make a Urology appt to go over all of his problems associated with the cath. I would also suggest that you find a WOCN or another type of nurse that excels with colostomy care for a consult. WOCN's are very useful.

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He does have a wound care specialist that was tending to both his colostomy and his bed sore (some nurses didn't think it was important to clean him up everytime he went to the bathroom but that is a whole other story lol) but they said his stoma was concaved and he was using the flat pieces but that was the end of that. As for the wedding tomorrow I'll try the asprin and blue stuff as well as a clean bag!

The superpubic cather...can you explain furthur how this works...is this the one that you clamp and then drain so often? if so that would be an excellent idea...then you don't have the infections down there and the constent changing of the catheter which increases bacteria and increased risk for skin breakdown from all the leakage. Good idea...lol

oh by the way happy birthday to me!! As of now july 23 I am 22! yay

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

Happy Birthday :balloons:

Superpubic catheters are what we recommend for patients with long term catheters- unfortunatly dont have lot of experience as they tend to go to urology as an out patient and we never see them again.

http://carecure.rutgers.edu/spinewire/Research/Suprapubic.htm

Found this article but dunno if it will help but it does give good arguments for and against

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