Experience Journal: Self-cathing around friends and at school

Clean intermittent catheterization (CIC), sometimes called self-cathing, involves emptying the bladder using a thin tube called a catheter when children and adolescents are unable to empty their bladders completely on their own. Some of the reasons children and adolescents might need to self-catheterize are if they were born with abnormal anatomy, had an infection that affected their bladder function or suffered damage to the nerves connecting the bladder to the spinal cord and then to the brain.

The Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Urology and the Department of Psychiatry created the Self-Cathing Experience Journal. This journal includes stories from children, young adults and parents who represent the collective wisdom of families who have experience with self-cathing. Here are some of their stories, in their own words.
On deciding how to tell friends…
At one of my check-ups, we met this other kid who lives near us and was thinking about using catheters. He wasn’t really sure, so since I was already using them, I said that I’d talk about it with him. I told him it doesn’t hurt at all, and it’s easy and that you should because it helps. A few months later we got together again, and it turned out he was using catheters and was OK with them. I’m happy that it worked, and I kind of liked talking to somebody else who has the same issue as me!
Henry, age 12
I sound very, very cliché, but I know that I have something to deal with and have to accept it, ...

Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 24, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Boston Children's Hospital staff Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Experience Journal self-cathing Source Type: news