A blockage

I had passed a lot of blood during the day Monday but my water was clear in the evening and Tuesday morning. I'd not had much exercise these last two or three weeks so I walked into the village to do a bit of shopping and back again - about a two mile round trip. It was after this that when I opened the "flip flow" valve on the catheter that no real fluid was passed and what did do contained clotty blood. This happened twice. So I changed the "flip flow" valve for a leg bag so that my bladder could drain all the time even if the flow was nearly non existent. Added to this twice urine blood mixture was forced pass the catheter. So I called the urology nurse who advised me to go to see my GP (who would only be able to tell me how full my bladder was) or go to A&E.

So I spent a couple of hours of late afternoon / early evening in A&E. My catheter seemed to be blocked and there was plenty of blood in what had come through earlier. After taking blood samples and doing the usual blood pressure and temperature checks A doctor from the urology department came to see me. Wouldn't you just know it, the catheter bag had filled! We decided that, rather than replace the catheter, the one already in would be flushed. A clot of blood came out on the first flush but nothing more on the next two. All seems to be OK now - no more blood and bag filling nicely. I hope it stays that way.

Many thanks to my mate and his wife from down the road who drove me to and from the hospital and waited around with me whilst I was there.

Still OK today (Wednesday).

I think I know what caused the problem. I had strapped the catheter pipe to my thigh to keep it tidy but I think the walking pushed the pipe in and out a little. Probably just a couple of millimetres but enough to irritate my penis (walking was uncomfortable) and cause the catheter balloon to chaff my bladder. Needless to say the pipe is no longer strapped although it would probably be OK to do so provided that enough flexibility was allowed above it.