Foley Removed

I went in to the clinic to get the Foley removed on Tuesday.  They took it out and then I was "on the clock" to pee.  I sat there drinking a liter of water and waiting to have to go pee.  They gave me a "hat" so I could measure the amount that I peed.  After about an hour I tried to go.  I tried to relax, and of course the doctor comes to the door "Ma'am are you still in there?"  Yes.  Of course she says, "Take your time!"  Then not 3 minutes later someone else knocks and tries the door.  I cannot perform under such conditions.  I managed to eek out a literal spot of urine.  I was near tears.

The doctor came back  into the room and I tried to tell her that it may be in my head and that I just can't pee with people knocking on the door etc.  She gave me a plastic grocery bag to put the "hat" in and told me I had until 3pm to pee and get back to the clinic for them to see if I had residual.  What a relief.

Cody and I went over to Midtown (a little plaza place where there is a bowling alley, food place, movie theater and it's attached to the gym.)  There is never a lot of people in the bathrooms there, so I went there and was able to pee.  I managed 300ml.  We headed straight back to the clinic and they straight cathed me and got out a residual of 140ml.  Ideal is of course less than 50ml, but the cut-off was 150ml so I passed that...barely.  I was released back into my natural habitat without a catheter.  Yay!

I was exhausted and took a nap and woke with a horrible pain right over my bladder.  I slowly made it to the bathroom and peed.  It came out slowly and with much coaxing, but it came out and the pain went away.  It was almost like a spasm of sorts.  My bladder was and still is pretty sore.

The next day I was really sore and wore out.  The walking at the hospital and to midtown did me in.  I'm only two weeks out and really need to take it slowly.  It's hard to make your mind to let you rest.  There is always so much that needs to be done all the time around here.

Today, Thursday, I walked the boys to the end of the street to catch the bus this morning.  I could feel my belly swelling up some.  There wasn't much pain, but comfortableness.  I walk extremely slowly as well.  I got back to the house and went to the bathroom and found that I was spotting a wee bit, so that means I'm likely doing a bit too much.  I'll have to slowly build up to walking longer distances.

Today I was having trouble having a bm and realized that I do indeed have a rectocele.  I did not get any of those type of repairs done because my doctor was too afraid of doing anything vaginally because of my Cauda Equina and the chance of another rupture.  She was afraid that me being in the required position would put too much pressure on my back and it would cause another rupture.  Ugh.  She came to this conclusion from consulting (emailing) a neurosurgeon friend of hers.  He has not seen my MRI or X-Rays and actually doesn't know much of my history, but hey; better safe than sorry.  There isn't a neurologist here that would have been able to do anything for me if something did happen.  So that just means that later on, I'll likely end up with another surgery if the symptoms get worse.  As for now, it's annoying but not too bad.  I did the whole stinting thing and it worked.  I hate that my body feels like it's falling apart.

I have no definitive proof that Cauda Equina caused my prolapse and other pelvic problems, but I believe that it hastened them.  I probably would have had these issues anyway, but months of being numb and having no muscle control in my pelvic region HAD to have forced the prolapses to be accelerated.

Surgery

I had surgery on Jan 4th.  The doctor did a bikini cut and took out my uterus, cervix and some dermoid cysts.  The cysts were unexpected, but she said that they were benign.  She also did a Burch bladder suspension.  I was under for several hours (somewhere around 4 or 5 hours).  I came out of it well.  I don't remember being woken up like I have for the past couple of surgeries.  I was woke up by my doctor and she was just talking to me.  I didn't have that feeling of being jolted back into reality.

The first 24 hours I was on morphine with the button to self medicate.  I didn't have to use it too much.  I slept a lot.

They removed the Foley Catheter and I had 6 hours to pee.  I was feeling very swollen and my bladder actually hurt a good bit.  I couldn't get anything out, just a dribble.  The put the Foley back in and we waited another 24 hours.  They removed it again and I was back on the 6 hour clock.  I managed to pee a couple of times and it was sort-of easy, I just had to relax and do it, instead of strain like I had been doing before.  However, I peed and then they straight cathed me and I still had 500ml left in my bladder.  THAT is not good so they put the Foley back in and I went home.  I wasn't able to fully empty my bladder.

I go back to the clinic on the 17th to remove the Foley and hopefully fully empty my bladder and be done with this mess.  They will remove the Foley, give me time to pee and once I do; straight cath me again to make sure I'm fully emptying my bladder.  I hope that with a full 10 days of rest and healing my bladder will be ready to work normally.

Now if I can get my leg to stop hurting and regain my strength, I'll be doing pretty good.

I'm supposed to be recuperating for 6 weeks or more.  I think I'll get there.