"Conflicting information. Lack of standard procedure form."

I recently went into hospital for a prostatectomy operation. I was admitted Monday morning and after the op, was taken to the recovery ward and then to the urology ward. I had surgical stockings, a catheter and six incisions in my abdominal area, one of which was dressed due to post-op bleeding. I had an allocated nurse when I arrived on the ward.

The nurses on the ward change every 12 hours and so her shift finished at 7pm and a new team started and I had another nurse allocated. At 7am the next morning the day shift started again with a different set of nurses. One of my other wounds started bleeding so I called for a nurse to have a dressing applied. This she said she would do and duly came back with the dressing.

My nominated nurse then came along and showed me how to change my catheter bag which was strapped to my leg and with which I would be going home with. She said that I had to change which leg I had the bag fixed to each day in order to avoid "penis rot" which was quite alarming to hear.

I was then told that I could go home at 3.30pm that same day. In the meantime another wound had started to weep and I again called for a nurse to apply a dressing. This was done. When I was due to leave the ward I asked if I could have some spare dressings to take home with me. My nominated nurse said that I had to request them from the district nurse when I got home and that if I had any problems with my catheter I had to do the same and contact the district nurse.

As I was leaving I wanted to ask my nominated nurse how long I had to wear the surgical stockings for. She was on a break so I asked one of the other staff nurses and she said that, as I was self injecting myself for 28 days with a blood thinner I only needed the stockings for a few days until I was mobile. I thought that this didn't sound right so I decided myself that I would wear them at least until my catheter was removed. The day after I got home my penis was quite sore and burning so I phoned the number given to me for the district nurse team.

However, I actually got through to the emergency urology advise team and when I explained the situation I was told it was probably "penis rot" and to contact the district nurse team on the number he gave me on the phone. I duly contacted the team and asked if they could call and check my catheter and also could they bring some dressings as the ones I had needed changing and another was weeping and I only had simple plasters at home.

I was told that they do not supply dressings as they only dealt with catheters and I had to go and see my GPs practice nurse for fresh dressings. At this point I was practically housebound due to mobility problems and had no way of getting to my GPs.

The district nurse came out and said that my catheter had not been positioned properly on the ward and was pulling when I sat down causing the pain and burning sensation. He adjusted it and gave me an anaesthetic gel to use. When I mentioned the "penis rot" and having to change the position of the bag to alternate legs each day he said that was rubbish as "penis rot" only happened occasionally in men with long term catheters i.e. for months and changing the position each day would probably cause more harm than good.

I went back to the urology ward a week later to have my catheter removed in a TWOC. This was quite painful and bled quite a lot. The nurse said that was usual and that I should drink extra water to dilute it out. I satisfactorily passed urine on the 3 occasions I needed to in order to go home and not have the catheter back in. I mentioned to the nurse about my wounds and dressings (at this point I only had plasters on). She said these were no good as they didn't breathe so she changed all the dressings and gave me some spare to take home. I also asked if I could take off my surgical stockings as I had my catheter out and was told that I had to wear them for at least a month. 

Throughout all this time I felt confused and frustrated with so many conflicting views.

The op I had is pretty standard and I felt that, to save any confusion and to help the ward nurses who are extremely busy anyway, it may be a good idea to have a standard check list that clearly outlines what the procedure is for catheters/stockings/dressings etc and to have clear telephone numbers and information about where to go for after ward care.

The ward had drawer fulls of dressings so why not send the patient home with spares? Why can't the district nurse team deal with dressings or other things apart from just catheters? Why isn't there a standard time on surgical stocking wear? and why aren't the people on the urology ward and emergency telephone line aware that "penis rot" is very occasional and only in long term catheter wearers and not for men like me who only had the catheter for 8 days? Also urology ward nurses in particular should know how to correctly position catheter bags and be able to give the correct advice on maintenance upon going home.