My mother is catheterized for the last 2 years using Foleys Medicated Catheter due to a hip fracture surgery gone wrong and she be bed ridden. Now, slowly even though her leg is shortened, we want her get off the bed and sit on the potty chair and want to remove her catheter. How do we bladder train her effectively and what are the risks involved?
If you are not getting her out of bed for BMs then I would tend to leave well enough alone. If she does not have fecal incontinence wearing Depends will be uncomfortable and may be make her sore. One way of retraining a bladder is to clamp the catheter off for increasing lengths of time to help expand the bladder.
After 2 years it will be almost impossible to re train her bladder and her mind.
Most muscles after 2 years will have atrophied to the point that they will be unusable.
Also with the one leg shorter she will have balance problems IF you can get her to stand. If she has been bed or chair bound and not walking for 2 years I go again back to the atrophied muscles.
My husband has not walked in 1 year and there is no way those spindly legs would now support his weight even with help.
You also have to consider the cleaning issue that you will have with getting her on the commode.
The peri area will have to be cleaned and dried well. She will have to wear a pull up or tab brief to absorb any "dribbles" as well as absorb any accidents and there will be many.
An area left unclean or damp can lead to irritation and infection.
You will have an increase in laundry due to the fact that ...wild guess here...99% of all incontinence products leak or get soaked through.
I suppose the question also is is she aware when she has a Bowel movement that she needs to be on the commode or is she wearing a pull up or tab brief all the time anyway? I guess if you are getting her up for a BM then my argument about getting her up being potentially dangerous has little merit.
I guess the bigger issue is how does she feel about it, would she want to be transferred every 2 hours or so to the commode? Is she willing and able to cooperate in trying this. And the big question...how does her doctor feel about it and is it a realistic expectation that she can successfully transition from a catheter? 2 years is a very long time.