Rants and Rambles

Better than falling ON my behind.

OK, first, the removal of the catheter was almost painless, except mental damage done by the anxiety and the bizarre list of thoughts that went through my mind between the time I decided I HAD to do this and when I was finished. The design of this thing is odd but simple; a tube within a tube. One is the obvious path for urine from your biological, internal bladder to what can similarly be considered a bladder, outside your body. This one you then empty when “convenient”. The other tube is to inflate (with fluid, not air) a bulb at the end that keeps the whole thing (hole thing?) from sliding out. To remove you simply cut the inflating end, the fluid drains and you pull it out. Sounds simple, but not much thought effort can get in the way of this task. I stood there over the toilet for half of an hour before I could cut the tube end off. Cutting off that end and letting the fluid drain and the bulb deflate was the point of no return; once done there would be nothing to reliably keep the catheter in. Not to mention the juggling act of holding “everything” including the scissors. And once I started the steady pulling pressure? I didn’t want to stop and needed to change my grip but I was almost bent over double; the thing seemed just that long (I mean the catheter!). Finally the end came out but if it was as long as it seemed, I should have felt the inflated bulb at the back of my throat!