What?? @Qadgop_the_Mercotan can speak to this better than me, but that doesn’t sound like anything I’d want to do myself.
When mine was removed, they first used it to fill my bladder, then removed it and tested to make sure I could empty my bladder completely. If there are any complications, it’s a lot better to discover them at the doctor’s office rather than home.
Same here, except that I had to wait ten minutes (continence test). And I had the same reaction to the idea of doing it myself.
I might consider doing it myself, but only if I had a fresh catheter on hand to re-insert if I dribbled too much. But that’s after 40 years of dealing with catheters in patients. I’d NOT want to make an untrained patient do it. Definitely not best practice IMHO.
Thanks for that. Yeah I am uncomfortable doing it myself, even with the helpful video and instructions they provided. I am going to make an appointment with the local urologist for the removal.
Oh wow. Yeah, I most certainly did not get an option to do it myself back in November, and there’s no way in hell I would want to do it myself, anyway. When they did the removal, they just removed it and sent me on my way – I don’t recall them even checking to see if I could relieve myself or anything. But everything went fine. That week of the catheter was the most annoying part of the whole recovery process, and I hope that’s as annoying as it gets for you. Getting your freedom back feels great!
That’s interesting. I would have thought the hard part would be knowing when to remind the catheter, not actually doing it. I have different parts, of course, but if a trained professional assured me it was time to remove it, and i had instructions, I’d be fine removing a urethral catheter.
I don’t think i could insert one in myself, though.
Huh. My buddy has to insert a catheter every time he needs to pee. That seemed pretty tricky to me, but he assures me that it’s not as bad as it seems at first. Annoying, but not difficult.
I’m sure it’s a skill most people could learn to do. But I’d want help the first several times.
OW! That has to hurt! 
Okay, here is the report - catheter removed successfully at home, as per provided instructions, video, and bedside demo right before being discharged. I also checked with my daughter nurse, who has done these removals routinely, on how it typically goes, and she reassured me and gave me courage (she firmly declined to assist). Nonetheless I was quite nervous, but determined! My wife was present in case anything went sideways. I won’t get into too much detail, but it came out 99% on it’s own from gravity once the balloon was deflated - the 1% wasn’t fun, and there was substantial bright burning and stinging at the, uh, extremity point initially. I guess I was pretty irritated at that one spot. While temporarily painful, feeling the pain also meant the surgeon spared the nerves running thru affected surgical area!
It is a massive relief! As others have shared, the one week of catheter is the most challenging part of all this (so far), with the discomfort, irritation, keeping the area clean, emptying Mr. Baggie, and lack of sleep. Afterward, as the adrenaline lowered, I started laying out great plans for the day: make myself breakfast and coffee, shave and shower, go for a walk (without my little bag friend)…and then swiftly fell asleep in the chair, with deep snores of exhaustion.
Next phase will be working on the incontinence, kegels, and walking. Anyway, there it is!
My wife told me of a husband of an acquaintance of hers that has to do that, too. And he has refused to see a doctor about it for a few years. I guess if it becomes routine it’s not a big deal, but wow!
You are a braver man than me. Congrats on the freedom!
Brief update. It’s been 2 weeks since my surgery, and I completed a follow-up video visit yesterday. I got the pathology report last week, and it indicated rather than the initial Gleason 4+3=7, the lesion was actually 3+4=7, so slightly less risk. However, there was an extension toward the edge of the prostate, but had not reached there, yet. The cancer was trying to escape, but I got it in time. Had I chose to wait and observe, I might have had to take a different journey later on.
Anyway, the last 3 days I am feeling human and more like myself for the first time since surgery. Daily walking and kegel sessions, lots of rest, and down to OTC Ibuprofen 3x a day. Still some irritation at that sensitive spot, and slight incontinence, as was expected. I am sleeping better but not yet uninterrupted thru the night. One incision point remains achy and sore. The surgeon notes I should be away from work for 6 weeks from the procedure, and I am inclined to do that rather than try to go back earlier.
Looking back, I had my MRI in September, diagnosis in December, and surgery in April - about six months from A to B. I still have a lot of recovery ahead, so no idea how long it may take to get to C - when I can say “I’m back!”
I’m glad to hear recovery is going fairly well.
I got my PSA test yesterday, I hope to have results by tomorrow.
This is the second test since the treatments. I hope it is lower as it should be.
That’s exactly what happened to me, as well! 4+3 downgraded to 3+4 after biopsy. So happy to hear that you caught it before it spread. Glad to hear recovery is going smoothly for you and at how quickly you managed to get this done. My journey was more like a year and a half, but included one year of watchful waiting before deciding I should act now rather than later.
I did find sleeping through the night took me a good couple months to really get to a normal level (only waking up once a night to pee – for the first three weeks, it was 4-11 times a night, but not that annoying because I get back to sleep instantly. But I have never been a person not to wake up at least 2-3 times a night.)
So keep lightly active, do those Kegels, and you’ll be back at 100% in no time!
I’m sincerely hoping my PSA results are screwed up do to my stupidity of not fasting before yesterday’s test. The PSA results are a 5.8.
I’ll go for a retest before returning to the Doctor, but damn. 
My A1C is up to 6.4 also bad, top end of Pre-Diabetic. Possibly but not likely high do not not fasting, most likely showing my bad dieting and low exercise over last 6 months. Self-inflicted to some degree, but set off by the cancer treatment.
The Glucose & LDL are both a little high but that would be due to lack of fasting.
Shit, Fuck Cancer.
Weird numbers for sure. Fouled up test or samples is the way to bet.
Time for a do-over. Sigh.
Congrats, glad to hear it’s progressing.
For me, I think it was 2 months post-surgery before I could do most of what I wanted to do at 75% (except ride a bike). At 3 months, I was running again and could ride a bike for short distances. At 5 months, I felt like I was truly “back”, just a little out of shape compared to pre-surgery.
Ugh, that sucks. Fingers crossed for you that this was a bad test, or just natural variability on a downward trend.
yeah. I’m sorry, Jim.
Best wishes and sympathy to @snowthx and @What_Exit. Where the HELL is my 1950’s style radiation that just turns me into a monstrous unearthly creature from beyond or gave me magnificent super powers?!?
Why does it still have it’s uses but screws up my useful quickly reproducing cells as well!?
–wanders off to complain about missing his functional flying car and useful personal robots as well–