Gotta Pee!

[drgirlfriend]

The Boyfriend is having increasing trouble with his bladder in the evening. Even though we have determined that it's mental and he's working on ignoring nature's call while he's preparing to connect, if the machine starts pulling too hard later the need to go is overwhelming. Which means waking me up and going thru the routine of disconnecting and re-connecting in the middle of the night. I finally found a job  so this 'not getting hooked up before 11' and 'waking me up at 3am' shit just isn't going to fly anymore.

Those of you who have something bedside to pee in: are you concerned about the cleanliness of that? Do you hand sanitize afterward? Has your pd nurse or Dr. ever said anything about it?

Thanks everyone!

[Joe]

Can you move the cycler so he can reach the bathroom without disconnecting? I have mine positioned so I have just enough tubing to reach my easy chair in the tv room and the bathroom, if I need it. If not, he can ask his team for extensions that will give him more line.

HTH

[drgirlfriend]

I think he feels better with the machine right by the bed, but I will suggest this to him. Thanks Joe!

[MaryD]

Congrats on the job!       

[drgirlfriend]

Thanks MaryD! It's exciting and scary to be working after a year and a half.

[blondie1746]

I am on the Baxter cycler and my cassettes have 18 feet of tubing from me to the machine and 18 feet from machine to my toilet where I drain.  My machine sits right next to my bed and the way my room is arranged I can reach the toilet without disconnecting.  And the tubing gives me flexibility in setting up the machine when I travel.  I believe this is the standard cassette that comes with my machine. 

[billybags]

Get him one of those  "men Pee" bottle  things you can buy at the pharmacist. Getting disconnected from the machine is not such a good idea unless it is absolutely necessary. As long as he has hand sanitizer he should be OK. I always smile when our unit has an awareness day, how to wash your hands, how many times, how long for, follow all the cleanliness routine, you know the jist. What do men do in there sleep? They hold their ba*** , they scratch things and then they put some gel on there hands and disconnect. There is no answer to this is there.

[highway61]

When I was on PD, my wife came up with an ingenious idea, she bought a sturdy table on wheels for the cycler. In our house we have some steps to go down to get the the bathroom but I could roll the cycler close enough to have my tubing reach the bathroom.

It also made many other things more convenient since it was so mobile.

[KidneySinger]

Disconnecting to pee is a terrible idea - forget the cleanliness of it.  The risk of infection goes up dramatically if he is not going through the entire sterile procedure.  You never want to connect and disconnect unless its and absolute emergency.  Talk to your PD center.  I would think that regardless of the make - you should have a long enough tube to reach.  Mine is Baxter and comes standard with 18 feet - I can't imagine the others don't have it.

[theone]

Totally agree with some of the comments. Don't connect/disconnect all the time as it will increase your chance of getting infection.
Ask a plastic urinal from your nurse. And then have the urinal hang off a 5 gallon plastic bucket so it won't fall off.
I use urinal at the middle of night without disconnecting/connecting.