Advice about catheters

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Hello my husband had a TURBT on Monday (he had a cystoscopy 10 days before).

After the TURBT he was ok for the first 12 hours or so but then started having excruciating pain. They had removed the catheter but then had to reinsert it because he was retaining urine.

He is now home with catheter intact.

I understand (from Google) that he's experiencing something called 'bladder spasms'. The pain is very intense and he is feeling he wants to pass urine. (His bag is filling up well and he's drinking water  - although probably not quite enough).

The hospital didn't give any painkillers. We have paracetamol in the house so he's taking those occasionally.

Does anyone know what else might help these spasms? 

thank you.

  • Xebedee,

    I am sorry to hear these, the spasms can be very painful. I had them in hospital, it was excruciating. 

    I think you should contact your treatment team or GP discuss, and that they should provide you with some proper pain releif.

    The pain I had was due to clots not being cleared from my bladder, the catheter was partially blocked. They inserted a new larger catheter, and then flushed out the bladder of blood and clots using a syringe. The pain went at once. 

    Leo

  • Thank you Leo. It’s awful seeing someone in a lot of pain. He’s woken up at 4am with it. 
    I’m going to encourage him to contact the team later this morning. 

  • It would be good if he can contact the team, both on the cause of the problem, and to enhance his pain management situation. It’s horrible being in such pain, which may to some extent be unnecessary if the treatable root cause is fixed. Here is hoping it’s sorted quickly.

  • if the catheter is flowing, then he should be drinking at least 2 litres of water a day in addition to other liquids. Stay away from caffeine as tea and coffee etc irritate the bladder.

    what colour is the pee in the catheter and are there visible clots?