My Grandma has had Alzheimer’s going on 8 years now. As things have gotten worse, she is colonized with bacteria and has lots of UTI's that is all associated with incontinence. We help her getting on the toilet she only drips. Drinks lots 3-4, 18 oz cups of water every day. Then if she doesn't go much during the day it takes melatonin to get her to sleep, after a few hours everything comes out more than 45 oz of urine. On sometimes she does go before bedtime it doesn’t take any sleep meds to help sleeping.
I'm just getting tired of taking her to the bathroom every 2.5 hours and she doesn't pee.
Has anyone ever used the pure wick system?
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/purewick-external-catheter-leakage-451606.htm
Here is a link to Amazon reviews of the Purewick system from verified buyers:
https://www.amazon.com/Bard-Medical-Purewick-External-Catheter/product-reviews/B07Y42RD9T
Good luck to you
hug :).
i have a friend whose father went through urinary retention. saw urologist. got a suprapubic catheter (that means not only is it a catheter, but it’s permanent. little hole/operation in stomach). the advantage to the permanent one is that it’s in the stomach. normal catheters are inserted in the private parts, which can cause pain when you sit for hours in a chair, or wheelchair. both normal and permanent catheters are equally prone to UTIs.
so, disadvantage of catheters:
you’ll get more UTIs.
(by the way, small UTIs can easily be treated with drinking lots of water) (water also helps prevent UTIs)
(medium UTIs need antibiotics) (severe UTIs need hospital treatment, to prevent sepsis)
(mannny UTIs can be treated by just drinking lots of water. it’ll pass).
advantage of catheters:
you no longer need to think about pipi. it just automatically goes in the pipi bag. or into the valve (if you manually open the valve, for example for the suprapubic catheter).
you no longer need to go to the bathroom many times. during the night for example, with the pipi bag, you don’t need to go to the bathroom at all for pipi. my friend’s father sleeps very well at night now, every night. uninterrupted sleep.