What is your opinion on the use of the PureWick device?
My mom was hospitalized and while in there they used it. While patient is in bed, if they have a bowel movement it gets in the external catheter! So, I’m not sure it is beneficial to a person in bed? She got a UTI!
IMO it has been a Godsend! I ordered The system for my mom after she broke her hip a few years ago, and it has alleviated so many problems! She used to get up several times a night to urinate, and never got a good night’s sleep. Now, thanks to Purewick, she’s able to sleep through the night. (She also wears an adult diaper, with a disposable pee pad underneath her - just in case.) The only downsides are 1) the cost of the wicks; about $200 for a box of 30, 2) the plastic bucket is fragile and cracks easily when you take the lid off, 3) the smell when you take the lid off. After cleaning g and disinfecting the pieces, we add a urine cleaning product and water to the bucket when setting it up for the night. It helps. We also have 2-3 bucket units we keep in rotation.
The only downside (for us) is my mom is now used to the Purewick system at night. Recently, she had to go to a post-accute rehab after being briefly hospitalized. She was completely bedridden. The rehab didn’t have the Purewick system, nor did they help her use a bedpan. Nor did they change her very often. So she was lying in her own urine for hours. I pulled her out of there after three days and filed a complaint about them.
Yes, Medicare stopped paying for it someone posted a while back. Me, do you have to be on your back all night. I also tend to change sides. Basically a stomach sleeper.
Interesting your observations on this. I don't know how good this is for someone with chronic incontinence, or for someone with both urine and fecal incontinence. I DO know it was used recently for a friend who had hip surgery. She had problems with her feet and required braces and it was so difficult for her to get up to the bathroom with her urinary urgency that there were problems; however she didn't have fecal incontinence and she needed this device only until back on her feet a bit better; she swore by it. Sounds like it might be good in some instances and not in others. Thanks for your observations.
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I ordered The system for my mom after she broke her hip a few years ago, and it has alleviated so many problems! She used to get up several times a night to urinate, and never got a good night’s sleep. Now, thanks to Purewick, she’s able to sleep through the night. (She also wears an adult diaper, with a disposable pee pad underneath her - just in case.)
The only downsides are 1) the cost of the wicks; about $200 for a box of 30, 2) the plastic bucket is fragile and cracks easily when you take the lid off, 3) the smell when you take the lid off. After cleaning g and disinfecting the pieces, we add a urine cleaning product and water to the bucket when setting it up for the night. It helps. We also have 2-3 bucket units we keep in rotation.
The only downside (for us) is my mom is now used to the Purewick system at night. Recently, she had to go to a post-accute rehab after being briefly hospitalized. She was completely bedridden. The rehab didn’t have the Purewick system, nor did they help her use a bedpan. Nor did they change her very often. So she was lying in her own urine for hours. I pulled her out of there after three days and filed a complaint about them.
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