April Otwell
  • Home
  • My Story
  • Life After A SCI
  • Media
  • Contact

My Indwelling Foley Story

7/25/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
As everyone knows I've been dealing with bladder issues but what everyone doesn't know exactly how bad it's been. So I'm going to start from the beginning but not go into great detail until the end. When my accident happened I was cathing or technically being cathed every two to four hours a day. It took about forty five minutes to cath me because of my spasticity. I hated it! It felt like just about the time I got done with cathing and settled down I had to do it all over again. So I started to use a foley full time which gave me the independence I wanted but what I didn't know was that the constant foley use was destroying my urethra.
The urethra is the tube that carries the urine from the bladder to its exit point. It's a very small tube but when you use a foley over a long period of time the foley tube starts to stretch it and the urethra starts to loose the ability to shrink too. So eventually you'll have to move up in size of the catheter because you'll start to having bladder leakage which has a lot of consequences.
I'm here to share with you the consequences I'm facing because of my prolonged use of the Foley catheter. My urethra had become so large that the male doctor could stick his hole index finger into my urethra. The normal urethra should only be the size of a 8 fr catheter. I asked if there was a catheter size that I could go to in order to stop the leakage to protect my skin. There's 6 fr to 40 fr and there's nothing that is as large as my urethra has stretched.
The leaking means that I smell like pee all the time. My clothes are always nasty. My chair gets wets when I leak which will cause uncovered damage to my chair over time. I don't want to leave my house because of the urine smell. I don't want to be around people because they can smell horrible.
I'm starting to feel the depression that I've been fighting since my injury happened starting to take over my mind once again. I'm fighting a war with my own mind. I have to keep reminding myself that in a few weeks it will be over and this won't be happening anymore. I'll be able to go out and have my life again. I'll be able to learn to drive and do everything else that this leaking has taken from me.
I have to keep fighting this war.
2 Comments
Donna
7/25/2017 10:33:57 am

So sorry you are going thru so much.know that you are thought about more than you know. Love you and praying for you.

Reply
Rhonda
7/25/2017 12:08:32 pm

I'm sorry for all your troubles I keep you in my prayers every day I love you April and so you know I'm here if l can help you in any way every thing is going to be okay with faith and determination Love you.!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Picture
    Paralyzed from the neck down after an ATV rollover at 14, April Otwell is beating the odds the doctors gave her. She's a blogger, fantasy writer, college student, sugar glider guardian and spinal cord injury survivor.  She's even writing her first fiction novel!

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed

    CONTACT

    Email: hopeful.thinking123@yahoo.com

Services

Guest Blogger
​Inspirational Speaker
Modeling 
Youtube Collaboration
​Other

Peer Mentor

Donate

© COPYRIGHT 2015-2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.