My oh has vascular dementia he was diagnosed in march, over the last few weeks he seems to be getting worse and has had a few accidents of late. He is on self catherisation and seems to be doing more cathatars . The consultant told us if you are using the toilet more then it is time to do a cathatar I know its a sign of the dermentia but he is starting to question why he keeps having these accidents How do I tell him it is the dermentia? Hope there is some one out there that can give me some advice
Accidents
- Thread starter Angtrog
- Start date
My OH had to do self catheterisation, but he didnt understand why he had to do it either and was getting accidents because his bladder was overful and he couldnt empty it without the catheter. He was also having trouble actually doing it. I did it for him for about 6 months - first thing in the morning, last thing at night and then when he started heading to the loo. Unfortunately, it was becoming harder, especially as he usually needed to be catheterised during the night too, but he didnt really understand this and I didnt always wake as I was so tired. Eventually, after a spell in hospital he came back with a permanent (indwelling) catheter, which has solved a lot of problems.
Can you speak to someone in the bladder clinic (it may have a different name)? I couldnt always get through, but I could leave a message and someone would phone me back.
Can you speak to someone in the bladder clinic (it may have a different name)? I couldnt always get through, but I could leave a message and someone would phone me back.
My OH was in hospital 5 yrs ago with a spinal cord injury where he was on a permanent indwelling catheter he was always getting infections the hospital decided to put him on self catheterisation which he has been on now for 4.5 yrs Im starting to think he has forgotton what to do .He is due to the bladder clinic at the end of Dec but I think I will ring them up and ask for some advice, He is really down and said to me enough is enough it is heart breaking ! Thanks for your advice thou will dofo ring them up tomorrow
The doctors are beginning to mutter about OH and his indwelling catheter too. He has had 6 UTIs in the past 9 months (ever since he has been put on it). They have been talking about a supra-pubic catheter, but unfortunately it requires a general anaesthetic. OHs Urologist is very keen for him to have a supra-pubic catheter - I am not so. At the moment OH is on prophylactic antibiotics, which is a low dose antibiotics which get changed every 2 months, and so far it seems to be working.
Nothing is perfect - its just a question of which is least bad, but I definitely couldnt cope with doing the self catheterisation for him.
Nothing is perfect - its just a question of which is least bad, but I definitely couldnt cope with doing the self catheterisation for him.
OH was getting urine retention ie he was not able to empty his bladder. In his case this was because the nerve to the bladder was damaged and the bladder could not contract, so remained full (neurogenic bladder). He was constantly backwards and forwards to the toilet (especially at night) trying to pass urine and not being able to and then sometimes he would get accidents because of what was called "overflow" incontinence when the bladder was already full to overflowing. The GP originally thought that it was due to a prostate problem, but tests showed that his prostate was normal size and the problem was with the nerve that went to the bladder.
This is not the same as the inconinance that many people with dementia get in about the middle stages - in that case it happens because the person can no longer control the muscles and the bladder empties involuntarily.
Thanks, Canary, you have helped me with so much over the last few years, will be forever grateful.
Just enquired about this as forever on a learning curve and sometimes it’s a case of we don’t know what we don’t know!! Hope you are having a good day
My OH was catheterized after a 12 week hospital stay with an infection that turned to sepsis. I don't know if the 1st was a UTI because they never really got to the bottom of it but they said my OH was retaining urine and that was giving him subsequent (a further 6 in hospital) UTIs. Usually they change catheters every 12 weeks but OH has been reduced to 10 weeks as he was getting UTIs around the 11 week mark and that has reduced them significantly.
