Catheter - Foley Care

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 o.k. 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 o.k. 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.