Had 2 stents put in on Monday. Very easy procedure and what the doctor had told me was muscle pain in my chest, is gone so must have been angina. Asked for the minimal anesthesia necessary and I never felt drugged either during or after the procedure. It has been almost 2 days and except for the small entry point for catheter and a couple of bruises on arm, I feel great.
On the other hand, I had the same problem I had after my cardiac cath in January, except much worse.
After cardiac cath, I couldn't pee for several hours. I took a flomax when I got home and an hour later I was fine. After the cath for stents, again I couldn't pee. After a few hours I was able to take a flomax, but it didn't help. At 7 pm,I asked to have a catheter put in so I could pee. They scanned my bladder and said it was completely full, over 1000 cc's.
The CNA put the catheter in and blood came out. The nurse came in and took the catheter out and re-inserted and again blood. For the next couple of hours it was blood everywhere as they tried to get the catheter in place and get me and the bed cleaned up. I think I might have gotten about 15 minutes sleep Monday night.
I had told them about the earlier problem when I had the cardiac cath and that I had been having discomfort in my abdomen ever since. I am scheduled for TAVR in 2 weeks, so it is critical this gets resolved and I don't have a repeat performance after TAVR.
After discussing several options, they finally agreed to let me go home on Tuesday, but I still have the catheter and still have blood mixed with urine, not quite as red as originally, but still very obvious. Last night the catheter started leaking and about an hour later, I was finally able to stop the leak. Have an appointment tomorrow with a local urologist to hopefully take out the catheter if bleeding has stopped.
I had never heard of this problem resulting from a heart cath before, but 2 nurses told me it is not uncommon The amount of bleeding I have is not common and they think it might have been caused by the initial insertion. Evidently the heperin and Plavix administered with procedure can cause bleeding. They also blamed an enlarged prostate, but didn't do any testing to see if in fact the prostate is enlarged.
I hadn't asked for it, but they set me up with home health care, so hopefully someone will be by today to get the catheter fastened back down properly. In trying to stop the leaking last night, I broke the plastic clamp that fastened the hose to my leg. I am holding it in place with an adhesive wrap, but it's not a very good solution.
I am going to create a post to discuss the urination and bleeding problem and see if anyone else has had the problem.
. Geez they certainly pushed me toward the limit or it certainly felt that way. Good news is I passed with flying colours.
