Catheter

I knew that I was going to have a catheter in me for several days following the surgery. Having never had one before, the thought made me anxious. I'd love to be able to report that that anxiety was unfounded but that would be a lie. I have hated almost everything about this catheter since the moment I woke up after surgery. I'll spare you the details of all the reasons why but I hope I never have to "wear" a catheter again.

Back to the timeline. I was not lucid enough to remember what time I actually got out of surgery. We spent a couple of hours in recovery/post-op, though. By the time I got home that night, it was around 9:00 pm and I was totally ready to call quits on that day and hit the sack. There were all sorts of things we needed to figure out regarding how I would be sleeping with the catheter, and decisions were made pretty hastily because we were both exhausted. Since neither of us had any experience with catheters, we did not make the best decisions. 

Between being uncomfortable and anxious about the catheter and how to sleep with it, where to keep the bag, etc., I ended up getting no sleep whatsoever that night. I have a touch of sleep apnea that prevents me from sleeping on my back. Sleeping on my stomach would never have been an option, my left hip hurt because there's a lot of cancer in it right now, and we had positioned the bag on the wrong side of the bed for me to roll over onto my right side. I watched the hours pass that night, sitting up occasionally for some ibuprofen or acetaminophen to stop various aches and pains. At 6:00 am on the 11th, when I knew my early-riser wife might be waking up, I texted her to come in and help me get out of bed and get situated on the couch downstairs. 

I was able to get a couple catnaps on the couch on the 11th but, for the most part, I was completely exhausted by that evening and once again went up to bed at a previously unheard of early hour for me. Thankfully, we had also spent some time troubleshooting everything that had happened the night before, which allowed me to sleep on my right side and actually get some sleep. I hedged my bets with a bit of hydrocodone, too.

I'm scheduled to have the catheter removed on the morning of Monday, April 15. I've been warned that some incontinence could follow but, to be honest, this thing can't come out soon enough.