FOLEY CATHETER CARE:

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You have a hollow rubber tube which is draining your bladder.
This is called a "Foley catheter". There is an inflated water balloon at the
end which is holding it in place. While you have this catheter in, you may
experience cramping in the bladder area sometime referred to as "bladder
spasms". This is quite natural and should, as much as possible, be
tolerated since the medications used to control the bladder spasms have
side effects such as constipation, blurred vision, and dry mouth when
used. If the pain in the bladder area becomes uncomfortable, warm bath,
shower, or heating pad applied to the bladder area is often helpful at
alleviating the discomfort.

The urine should be draining into your collection bag freely. If you
notice a redness to your urine, or small clot formation, do not be alarmed.
Increase your fluid intake and decrease your activity. For example, sit
down or lay down. Urine colored pink similar to the color of "Kool-aid" is
ok.  Urine that takes on the color of tomato soup or a failure for your urine
to drain into the bag is a problem, for which you should contact the
physician and be prepared to go to the Emergency Room after speaking to
the doctor on the phone.


Occasionally, associated with a bladder spasm, a small amount of urine
will leak around the catheter. This is ok as long as the urinary drainage
into the bag otherwise continues.

While you have a Foley catheter, it is important that you continue your
daily hygiene. You may take a shower without harm to the catheter.
Cleanse yourself with soap and water as you usually do. A catheter that
stays in a while may develop a "crust" formation at the point it enters your
bladder known as your urethra. If this occurs, wash off the crust with soap
and water gently. This daily hygiene will make you feel better as well as
reduce the incidence of urinary tract infection.

Keep the catheter secured to the leg loosely with tape. This will prevent
injury to your urethra, bladder spasms, and will promote drainage.
You can purchase medical tape at your pharmacy without a prescription. If
you have sensitive skin, we would suggest the use of paper tape. If various
widths are available, we would suggest the 2" width.


You should drain your catheter bag regularly. Some patients will have both
a leg bag and a larger bedside bag to use. When a catheter bag is not in
use, it should be drained of urine and cleaned with a mild soap (such as
you would use to hand wash dishes) and left to dry. If you are using a
urinary leg bag, we suggest rotating the leg it is used on so that you are
not wearing the catheter on the same leg each day. The leg bag should be
held on to your leg in such a fashion that the straps are not so tight that
they are uncomfortable or "cutting off" your circulation.

The removal and/or replacement of the Foley catheter is not a painful
process. Please do not be alarmed nor raise your anxiety concerning this
process. If you should have questions not addressed in this hand-out or
handled by "good old fashioned common sense", please feel free to
contact us. We would appreciate it if you would limit routine calls to office
hours saving after-hour calls for emergencies only.


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