Initial reactions to Catheterization

self-cathing key


 

yellow_sc_ana My problems with urinary retention started in December, and then I was admitted sometime in January, and then I began having to cath in January. There wasn’t really any options, because I can’t empty my bladder without the catheter. I wasn’t very happy at first, and the urologist said, “It’s going to be great, you won’t be leaking!” They were very happy about it, and I thought they were crazy, just because I’m like, “How is this a good thing?” I wasn’t really getting it at the time. Plus, at the time, visiting nurses and my mom were doing it, so it was really embarrassing.

 

Jenna, age 16

 

yellow_sc_ana I absolutely refused
When I was little they tried to make me catheterize. I absolutely refused, I wouldn’t have any of it, absolutely refused. So I didn’t start cathing until – trying to figure out how old I was – must have been sixth grade. I guess I was ten, and I should have been cathing for all the years before that, but I don’t know, I just didn’t!
It was more the fear, it was just so foreign to me, the idea of cathing. But once I started, it was so much better, and I very rarely got urinary tract infections anymore. In fact, right now I haven’t had a UTI until August of 2008…so that’s like the longest I’ve ever gone!

Elizabeth, age 16

 

yellow_sc_ana There wasn’t another option
I really didn’t want to do it. I mean, I researched a lot of alternatives to try and figure out if there was anything else but there really wasn’t.
The doctors were pretty convinced, and I mean I guess I had some choice because I was an adult, but there really wasn’t another feasible option.

Johanna, age 22

 

blue_sc_func It was like, “I’m not going to like this…I don’t know about this…if I could choose, it would be like, ‘Okay, NO!’”
I watched the movie about a million zillion times to get ready.

 

Meghan, age 8

 

blue_sc_func Just the fact scared me
I was so nervous. I cried on the way home I was so nervous! Just the fact that I had to stick a tube up inside of me like four times a day, that just really scared me! And like, what was I going to do at school? Dance? How was I going to do that? And I don’t know, just the fact, it just scared me! I mean, when I had surgery, obviously I had a catheter inside of me, but like, I didn’t have to put it up there and then take it out. And I was worried if it was going to hurt, if it wasn’t, all that stuff.

Alexa, age 16

 

green_sc_neuro It did not feel good then
I didn’t exactly like the idea because I had done the catheterization on the tests. It did not feel good then. But when I did it I calmed down and it didn’t hurt.

Ryan, age 11