indwelling catheters for night time only?

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earthwitch56
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:00 pm
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by earthwitch56 on Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:09 pm

indwelling catheters for night time only?

I currently use ISC (intermittent catheterisation). For various reasons, I need to be allowing my bladder to free drain overnight, which I obviously can't do with an intermittent catheter, unless I wake up every two hours or so to cath.

Does anyone put an indwelling catheter in overnight (i.e. one with a balloon that is inflated to hold it in place) and remove it every morning? Is this something that can or should be done? Does it have any more risks than just ISC? Would it be a single use catheter each time, or would you somehow sterilise it and reuse it several times?

Or if it isn't possible, is my only option then to go back to an indwelling catheter, but to use a flipflow valve during the day and put on a night bag at night?

If I lived in an area with continence advisors I'd just ask one, but unfortunately in our area I only have access to community nurses who generally have a lot less experience and knowledge of what kinds of catheters are available than I do (including one who I discovered hadn't even seen intermittent catheters until I asked them to get samples for me recently!).