IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Motherhood prepares you for many things, One of those things is that cry in the middle of the night, I wet the bed. So up I get to take care of that problem. I hear him saying "I can take care of it." I, of course, ignore that. The very first part of the vows I took said "in sickness and health", I think sickness covers this. Turning the lights I hear the cry I was NOT expecting,"the catheter came out".

 Pat has an indwelling catheter held in place with stitches not a balloon like a normal one is. I feel the panic start inside me. I know I have to remain calm. With normal catheters there is really no problem to replace them. You get a cath tray out with sterile gloves and proceed to insert a new one into the stoma (hole cut in his suprapubic area into the bladder). It needs to done pretty quickly as they can close up sometimes as soon as in 10 minutes! I knew that his would not be put back in in less than that time as his has to be sewn in. The closest hospital is 25 minutes away and not in plan. Only way to use it is in life and death situation, this emergency does not cover that. The hospital we have to go to is 45 minutes from home.

I get dressed and then help him get dressed and off we go. He is taken back to a room at once, paperwork to be done later. The hospital was fast and efficient. Of course they did not tell me anything I did not already know, that it would be morning before anything really could be done. I settled in for what I knew would be a long and sleepless night. Pat was given his pain meds so I knew he would sleep somewhat. Hard to really sleep when you have to use a urinal every 15-30 minutes. His bladder holds at best 50 cc's due to damage from the cancer.


Good news is, they did not have to cut a new stoma! Next comes an agonizing few days for him as his body recovers from the trauma of having his catheter yanked out and a new one put in.