Any experience of catheter and bag please?

[cricketmum84]

Am feeling a little nervous. I'm due some surgery very soon where I will need a catheter and bag in place for approx four weeks, maybe longer.

I have no experience of anything like this - I've never even had an anaesthetic before. So thought I would pop on here and ask for any personal experiences.

Is it painful? Uncomfortable? Can you feel it there all the time? What sort of clothes can I wear? Does it get in the way?

Any advice will be most gratefully received! Thank you!

Oh poor you!

I had one for around a week after a gynae op.

You can't 'feel' the tube in a 'painful' way once it's in place but you can feel it as something being there and if it gets tugged in any way you can feel that.

I was in bed mainly with the bag and once I got up, I just had the catheter and no bag- so you take the plug out of the end when you sit on the loo to allow your bladder to empty.

I think if you have a bag for that long it will be strapped to your thigh so you will wear a skirt/ dress or loose trousers.

Good luck!

Thank you @DuchessofDerbyshire! I'm going to have stitches inside my urethra so it's got to be in place until those have healed.

I was going to treat myself to some loungewear for when in hospital but then wondered if nightdresses would actually be better. I'll have a look for some very loose legged loungewear for when I get home. I usually live in jeans and leggings. The consultant said yes it will be a bag strapped to my leg.

Good to know that it's not actually painful though. That was worrying me quite a bit.

I had one for about a week after having a baby. Not sore but just can be uncomfortable for a moment if it accidentally gets pulled. If you're going to have a leg bag when you're home, be sure to ask the hospital for a bag stand for the 'overflow' during the night. Capacity of the leg bag is quite small, think about 500ml so there's a larger bag that the leg bag empties into during the night. Maternity hospital sent me home without one so had to empty leg bag every 3-4 hours but was up with baby anyway so it was fine.
Hope you're back to full health soon

I had one after a ceasarian, for about 4 to 5 days maybe, I didn't even feel it to be honest, the only painful bit was removal but it was a quick short shape pain that was over in seconds. Good luck op.

I had one when I gave birth. Got to say I rather liked not having to get out of bed to go to the loo! I kept looking at the bag thinking, 'Ha! I would had to have go to the loo loads of times by now!' Don't remember it being any more painful than an injection or similar.