Help, cannot pee after plastic surgery with catheter in

  Help, has anyone encountered this?  I had surgery today, and despite drinking literally gallons of fluid, and having painful "got to pee" pressure, and had a full catheter inserted, I have not been able to pee.  My muscles are clenched like I am trying to stop peeing, but with bags of fluids on top of pitcher after pitcher of water, I'm not generating.  My bowel is starting to growl, in the past I have noticed when having trouble emptying bowel that if I passed gas, I could more completely empty my bladder (almost like the bowel is putting pressure on my bladder)

Does anyone recognize what this might be?  I'm just getting told that "pressure" to pee is normal postop". I think something else is going on.  The sheer volume of fluid I have been drinking, I cannot believe I have "fake pressure" and no urine.

I'm imagining they just emptied your bladder, then removed the catheter....am I right? Without knowing your surgery, do you have pain control problems now? You could have a distended bladder, is not uncommon after anesthesia. If you are home, try sitting on the toilet with your elbows resting on your knees. The goal is to put pressure on your lower abdomen to help with bladder emptying. If too painful, try a small pillow to splint your belly. If you get too uncomfortable, and/or 6-8 hours have passed and no void, you need to go to your ER to get help with this. Keep drinking to keep your bladder flushed out (to help decrease your chance of UTI) and to keep stimulating your bladder. Certainly once you have been catheterized there is some dicomfort the first few times you pee after, but pressure to void, and being unable is not common in the absence of infection. Sounds more like an anesthetic complication. The bladder is technically a muscle, and can be very slow to wake after surgery...common on "my side of the bed" (I'm an RN). Good luck, and hope all goes well (pun intended!)

 They have the full catheter in, after they drained it hours ago with a temporary catheter.   I'm in too much pain drank too much fluid over too many hours to have zero output

 I don't think I have a choice, I need to call the er from my hospital bed

OK....is your catheter kinked, or otherwise blocked? Hopefully your nurse has checked! YIPES!! Sorry about the misunderstanding about where you are.

Please take a deep breath and relax... there is no reason to call the ER from your hospital bed.

Yes, the pressure is normal after surgery.  You also need to keep in mind that when you have had surgery, your body RETAINS a lot of water because the body's natural reaction to trauma is to send fluid to the area as protection and to aid in healing... so the amount of fluid that you are going to eliminate is going to be MUCH less immediately after surgery than under normal conditions.

Lora

I hope you got some relief. I know after my husband's hernia surgery they said if he hadn't gone in so many hours they'd have to put a catheter in him

Just trying to clarify, do you currently have a FOLEY catheter, ie: is there a long tube coming out of your hoo-hoo that is connected to a urine collection bag?

If so, you are urinating (it goes straight out the tube and into the bag) and that uncomfortable fullness is probably pressure from the foley baloon sitting at the top of your urethra.

I had a FOLEY catheter with the balloon, cable, drain, and despite 4 hours of drinking pitchers of water, not a single drop of urine.   I'm still in the middle of this.   Thanks for the reply