Foley catheter, how to prevent UTI

I just had a radical hysterectomy on Fri, 11/20/09 because of a cancerous tumor on my cervix and had to come home with a foley catheter. It will be removed the day after Thanksgiving. I have heard that you can get a UTI or yeast infection from the catheter ??? Any suggestions on how to prevent this or any comments on your experience would help. Thankyou

I don't know, but I do know lots of water won't hurt. It's also good for your healing in other ways and preventing constipation.

Take care,

I went home after my surgery with a Foley, kept it in for a week and never got a UTI. One thing I did which may have helped is to use a bidet or peri bottle after using the bathroom, to rinse off the catheter tube as well as my nether regions. I also wiped the tube off at least once daily with an alcohol wipe.

I love cranberry juice and drank lots of it mixed 50/50 with water that week. If you don't have any condition which contraindicates it, cranberry juice is helpful because it makes the walls of the bladder "slippery" to bacteria.

However, come to think of it, I've never had a UTI in my life, so I don't know how much of my success in avoiding them during my recovery is due to the things I mentioned above and how much was just my natural tendency not to get them.

s,
-Linda

Drink Lots and Lots of Cranberry Juice! Cran-apple, Cran-grape, Cran-anything! It has helped me a lot. If you can't stand the taste of Cranberry, you can buy the cranberry pill. Hope this helps~! Ask your doctor also.

Thankyou so much everyone for all of your good ideas. I had the catheter taken out today and so far so good, you know when you hear something and it just freaks you out, i think that's what happened to me. I will continue to drink the cranberry juice just for good measure. I was nervous about having the catheter taken out and it wasn't as bad as I thought, I think it's human nature to get yourself all worked up with the un-known. Thankyou all so much for your advice and please take care and God bless.