"A lovely and experienced staff member"

I had a session with a nurse, Susan, in March 2025 at the Tayside Continence Advisory and Treatment Service (CATS), at Stracathro Hospital in Angus. 

I felt very supported and very listened to. The nurse was really lovely, and spent a whole hour with me. 

I had had a health event in Autumn 2024 which meant that, amongst other things, I lost control of my bladder. Whilst in hospital, this started to improve a bit, but the decision was made that I should be re-catheterised, and discharged with a catheter with a flipflo valve. I had temporary follow-up with a local district nursing team regarding management of the catheter, and then the catheter was taken out by that team a few months later. My bladder muscles hadn't been working properly because of the health event, but this was then compounded by the fact that I had had a catheter for several months. It is very stressful being incontinent, and trying to manage an issue like this can feel very overwhelming. Even though you know that there must be many other people with the same problem, you feel very alone. I really felt that I needed some help to try and improve the situation.

I had asked my GP to refer me to CATS (which I found online) when I was discharged from hospital. I am very glad that I did. I got a letter from CATS to let me know that there was a few weeks' waiting list, and then I was offered an appointment fairly quickly after that. I instead opted to have an appointment about a month later instead as I knew by then that I would no longer have a catheter at that point. The reason why I mention this is that the fact that the service was able to be flexible like this was a key thing for me. Some services would not allow this flexibility.

The CATS nurse was very detailed in her assessment of my situation, and provided me with exactly the information that I needed in order to feel confident enough to make progress. Talking about intimate things like one's toilet habits takes courage, and the nurse made the situation very easy for me. She put me at my ease, and at no time did I feel embarrassed. All I needed was that one hour with a lovely and experienced nurse for me to feel that I now had the tools to make things better for myself, and I am very pleased to say that that is exactly what I got from CATS.