"The more you learn the less your enemy will know."

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that my short term goal at Craig was to not have a bag of pee hanging off of my leg.  That is, I didn't want to be catheterized 24/7.  I was picturing myself back home, playing video games in my buddy's basement with a group of friends, and the embarrassment of the catheter on my leg.

This may seem like a short sighted goal to you.  Shouldn't I have wanted to walk out of there? Shouldn't I have wanted to be healed? At the time all I wanted was to get back to life as I knew it.  I wanted to be home, with my friends, and I wanted independence again.  I couldn't be independent if I was constantly monitoring the fullness of the catheter and the accessibility of whatever bathroom was closest.Let me tell you that one of my biggest frustrations is that few private bathrooms have doorways wide enough to get a wheelchair through. 

More than that though, I wanted to have at least one small amount of control over my body.  I wanted to be able to actually control something that my body was suddenly incapable of doing.

There are basically three options for this issue.  The first is to have a catheter inserted with the bag.  That's probably what most people think of when they think of being catheterized.  A second option is surgical insertion of a catheter through the abdomen and into the bladder.  This method is generally chosen by people for whom the catheter might from the first method might be an obstacle... for stuff.  *cough cough*  The third method is intermittent catheterizing.  Basically, the use of disposable catheters every few hours.

There are two types of disposable catheters.  There are self contained catheters, that I can carry with I and use in a public or otherwise not-my-own bathroom.  The others are simple catheters that I connect with an extender that empties directly into the toilet.  These are generally just used at home due to their "some assembly required" nature.  This presents a problem. If I forget the first kind of catheter, or for some reason need to use all that I have... well it presents an obvious problem.

That's the primary reason I carry a backpack on the back of my chair.  I have to keep plenty of those handy.