swelling with catheter in, anyone experience?

[sleepingsowell]

This is a bit of a long shot but am asking for a male relative who's just had abdominal surgery and been discharged home with a catheter in place - he has got a really swollen penis...Dr has been out and said that this is normal post op swelling but I know he's still concerned as has been taking anti inflammatories and can't quite see why it is swollen today when the OP was about 3 days ago.
Hope some one may be able to help xx

[blinks]

does he have a district nurse coming in? when did GP examine him?

[sleepingsowell]

GP saw him this morning, only a couple of hours ago - I guess we should believe the GP but obviously it's scary for him!

[blinks]

what was the surgery? swelling is normal but if he becomes more unwell eg temperature/discharge/increasing swelling, you need to get him reassessed.

[sleepingsowell]

thanks blinks - surgery was on Tues or Weds. He's got no pain or discharge or temp. Apart from looking terrified he looks ok!

[TheLogLady]

it could be phimosis - if the foreskin isn't pulled back over the end it gets really swollen and oedematous.

i think he probably needs to be looked at again.

[sleepingsowell]

thanks - I will check with him...

[blinks]

most likely GP would have picked up on that TLL.

[sleepingsowell]

Is it blinks? I would have hoped that the GP would know about that condition but it's hard to have faith when you have a scared relative in front of you!

[sleepingsowell]

by the way thanks so much for the replies, wasn't sure I would get any - MN is great!

[blinks]

google phimosis and click on images instead of web. it has a pretty distinctive presentation. it's unlikely GP would have missed it and it'd be a huge coincidence that it developed the same time as this operation... more likely it's swelling that will pass with anti-inflammatory meds and time.

if he has a catheter he might have district nurses coming in? what kind of catheter is it? is it supra-pubic?

[TheLogLady]

not a coincidence as to put in the catheter the foreskin needs pulling back, then if it's not pulled back over the end fully it swells and gets stuck then swells more. so a possibility.(think its actually called paraphimosis)

[sleepingsowell]

Yes he has district nurses coming in so you would hope that ALL the various nurses and GP would not look at his swelling and not realise if it was paraphimosis! I will direct him to look at googled photos though just to set his mind at rest. Thank you so much all. x

[blinks]

good idea... the district nurse will know whether or not it's needing reassessed.