After SRS which I had last year I had pretty bad experience (pain, meatal stricture) with my urethra. As a result, I am freaking scared of having a catheter again.

So I asked at Facial Team (Spain) if they can do the FFS without inserting me a catheter.
Answer: It is a matter of the length of the procedure.

When operation duration exceeds a specific time, they must use a urinary catheter due to legal reasons.

As my surgery (forehead, brow lift, nose job) won't exceed this limit - I think it was 4 hours - they can to the procedure without catheter. So I think I am going to get a diaper instead. Which is absolutely fine to me! I rather pee my pants a couple of times than facing the risk of another urethral surgery.

I think most patients are not aware of the risks urinary catheters can do. Maybe you want to read this and then ask your surgeon if they can do the procedure without catheter:
http://www.patientmodesty.org/catheterizations.aspx
www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0114p0n5.pdf‎

Hi,
I'm really surprised by this post. I had two rather long FFS surgeries, first upper face, then lower face. Both sessions lasted more than 7 hours but neither required use of a catheter and it is the very first time I have heard anyone mention this.
I'm also sure it wasn't done without my knowledge as it's the sort of thing you can still feel for quite some time afterwards.
Cheers
Donna 

Hi aibeecee!
        Good information for anyone to consider, thanks for sharing! There are always risks involved in any kind of procedure and since you have been so traumatized one can hardly blame you for your concerns. I was catheterized for a three day period which was welcomed because I couldn't budge for a week without extreme pain. I had no problems from it and it came out easily in spite of urethral scarring from some formerly bad male behavior in SE Asia years ago. So we can usually regard such warnings as only a generalization that may be applicable to maybe a few patients, but one would never know until after the fact and with all the surgeries that people here go through it is not good to increase their anxiety levels with all of the potential negatives. After all, the best place to get MERSA virus or some other flesh eating bacteria is in hospitals, but that doesn't preclude the need for going to one.

Quote from: Donna Elvira on August 31, 2013, 11:03:39 AM
Hi,
I'm really surprised by this post. I had two rather long FFS surgeries, first upper face, then lower face. Both sessions lasted more than 7 hours but neither required use of a catheter and it is the very first time I have heard anyone mention this.
I'm also sure it wasn't done without my knowledge as it's the sort of thing you can still feel for quite some time afterwards.
Cheers
Donna

It depends on the regulations which can of course differ internationally. Most western European countries have pretty strict laws when it comes to patient safety. (I am a lawyer.)

Where was your surgery performed?

Quote from: aibeecee on September 01, 2013, 08:55:35 AM
It depends on the regulations which can of course differ internationally. Most western European countries have pretty strict laws when it comes to patient safety. (I am a lawyer.)

Where was your surgery performed?

Belgium, in a very modern clinic with a very complete medical team. I get a feel for that coming out of the anaesthetic following my first surgery. Inititially I had muscular spasms and my blood pressure went through the roof but they had it under control and back to normal within minutes (at most!)
Donna
 

Regarding the use of the catheter, during a previous consult with an ffs surgeon, he explained he used the catheter because it made the first 24 hours post surgery more manageable for the patient. He removes it the following day of surgery. I'm not crazy about a catheter either, I developed a kidney infection due to one before and having a three day straight fever of 105 degrees is something I never want to experience again. Good to know about the diaper option, would just need to put the pride aside for a bit.

I think that in long surgeries the urine collected through the catheter is tested to know how the patient is doing. Blood samples are taken to the hospital lab as well. I don't think this is possible with the diaper, but like you say, if the surgery is short such screenings might not be as necessary.