Informed Choice

When I made a positive decision to have an indwelling catheter, eyebrows were raised to say the least, most Dr's prefer not to use this option for a lot of reasons, but having battled gamely on with intermittents, I just knew it was the right choice for me.

When I was a teenager I was one of those girls who was always getting bouts of cystitis for no particular reason, and this continued into adulthood. Boy I suffered at times, Id never wish it on my worst enemy frankly. Like I said no one ever knew why I got it, there was no obvious reason, it was I guess, either the way I was made, or something to do with the flora in my gut and/or bladder. So when I found myself in the situation of having to use catheters, at first life seemed a lot better, only that didn't last long, and for the majority of the time I have suffered with pain, infection, discomfort, leakage and general misery. It hasn't helped my quality of life one bit, and despite reassurances from my urologist, I just knew it wasn't, and wouldn't work for me.

My urologist wasn't at all happy about my decision, and reeled off 1000 reasons not to have an indwelling, but hey its my choice, and add in the ongoing hand complication over the last 6 months, it meant I wasn't actually finding it an easy procedure to carry out anyway. I need some quality of life, I don't want to smell, ( paranoia creeping in there) I want to feel better. It was with some reluctance that she agreed to it, and now I can change it myself, and have control of my own body. I feel better drinking more and have noticed that the infection Ive had forever seems to be clearing up slowly without the use of antibiotics anymore, and do I feel better? Yes I feel 100 times better, I feel lighter, more comfortable, that horrible stinging pain has gone, and my life has improved a zillion times because of this.

So its all about patient choice I guess. At the end of the day we know our bodied best, I have taken a rational decision based on full knowledge of the facts, and while it may not be the best option for many, so far it has worked brilliantly for me. Life is all about quality and by making a different choice I have improved mine in countless ways.