My 78yo mom has had a suprapubic catheter for the past 25 years. She lives independently. Recently her catheter has been failing to flow urine into the bag between scheduled replacements, causing emergency room visits where it can take hours for her to be seen while she grips the back of a chair, moaning in severe pain, unable to sit. I always meet her there and push for her to be seen right away, but results vary. The first few times this happened was right after she switched providers when her doc retired - it seems her new nurse may not have been replacing the catheter correctly. When she switched providers again, the problem went away for a while but it recently happened again. The nurse said it could be sediment in her urine or possibly an infection clogging the device (though mom says she takes Bactrim for this). Does anyone know what causes this usually? My mom is a bit of a secret eater and can binge, so I'm not sure what her diet is like. She does consume a lot of water, which I think is supposed to help. Also, are there RNs or techs I can hire to do these emergency replacements at home?
In the case of an emergency blockage she would still need to go to the ER unless......
The only way to make this easier is to hire an R.N. from an agency and schedule
her regular visits and ask about care during crisis events.
This is a difficult situation and I wish you luck with a better solution.
After many issues with it, although she loved not having to go to the bathroom, she had to have it removed and went into Depends with 2 extra pads stuck in there.
She sure smelled better with the Depends than with the catheter, which made me believe that she wasn't cleaning the cath bag properly.
Did you seek answers to your questions to her urologist?