20 - CATHETER (PART 4) WHY AREN'T THEY AVAILABLE OVER THE COUNTER?

These days UR/ BPH is treatable and so not generally life threatening. A diagnosis is in no way as stressful as one of cancer or MS or many other conditions that can be horribly painful and debilitating and ultimately fatal. Yet the pain of UR is one of the worst pains a man can have and if it's at an advanced stage it doesn't go away - even with anything but the most powerful pain medication. Without access to a catheter it can't be taken away. That's an odd contradiction - extreme pain that's able to be relieved without drugs and not able to be relieved with them.

If I had a list of simple pain relief medical interventions, the catheter would be at the top above bandages and morphine and anaesthetic. Why? - because they have the ability to remove excruciating pain in a matter of seconds without the use of any drug.

Unless you've had experience of a catheter they seem far removed from your normal healthy life. To most people they're unsettling contraptions that are only used on really sick people ... not you! The thought of them makes us uncomfortable. We cringe a little! After all don't they have to be inserted inside you by a nurse!?

You can buy catheters online, but with millions of men suffering from chronic retention it seems like they should be more readily available over the counter in chemists and even supermarkets in packs of 1 - 2 - 5 - 20. The reason for this not being the case is described thus:

'Catheters are genearally not available over the counter because they are medical devices that require proper selection, sterile insertion, and management by a trained healthcare professional to prevent serious complications, primarily urinary tract infections (UTIs) and potential damage to the urethra.'   

I get that to a point. Giving every Tom, Dick and Harry access to them over the counter would be inviting trouble. People would be bringing them to house parties just for the craic. Kids would be getting grownups to buy them a ten pack or a couple of singles for behind the shed with their mates, and doctor's surgeries and hospital emergency departments would be filled with idiots arriving with one dangling from their cock or fully shoved up into their bladder! 😝

How good would it be though if catheter dispensers were available in pub corridors, cafes and train stations? I reckon that's a viable business start-up for some enterprising BPH sufferer.

Users do need to be instructed on their use as I was by nurse Cathy but you don't have to be a brain surgeon. It only took a few minutes with her before I was sent off with a box of 30 under my arm and fully qualified to use them any time I pissing well wanted!

There isn't much to it - 

1/ get cock out

2/ open catheter package

3/ stand over toilet bowl

4/ insert catheter end into pee hole

5/ push tube gently until it won't go any further

6/ direct the gushing pee into toilet bowl or urinal

7/ wait for pee to stop flowing

8/ remove catheter carefully

9/ shake cock and put away

10/ dispose of catheter

11/ wash hands and go on your way

Urinary infections are the other issue. A sterile catheter itself poses little risk of causing infection, but if it is inserted through an unclean urethral meatus (pee hole) the risk grows from bacteria being transferred up the urethra into the bladder on the tip of the catheter. In the 1.5 years of using catheters 4 or 5 times a day I had only 3 urinary tract infections so the risk is small.

Joking aside - the issue I have is that like me many men are not introduced to the idea or possibility of self-catheterisation early enough in their journey to painful urinary retention. During many visits to my doctor over a number of years he never once mentioned them as a possible stop-gap treatment. Some readers might say "Why didn't you think of it yourself!?" but what man comes up with his own idea of sticking a tube up his cock to help him pee? As I wrote earlier, the word 'catheter' isn't one you associate with your life. 

How many men are at this moment suffering needlessly from UR because they do not know about self-catheterisation? My guess is that it's in the millions. With over the counter availability, so much needless suffering could be avoided. Men who's UR prevents them from socialising or just getting out of the house could be freed from their affliction. They could confidently go to the cinema or the pub, for a walk or to their kid's sports match without worrying about whether they are going to be crippled with pain and/ or pee themselves.

A simple permission in the form of a credit card sized id card could allow this to happen. Present it to a chemist and make your purchase over the counter. In addition all doctors should be retrained or advised on the severity of the UR condition so that no suffering patient leaves their consultation in unnecessary pain.

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