What if I have to get a catheter again someday?
It's hard to decide whether to put this in "questions" or "support group" because it's just a hypothetical that I'm stressing my own self over and I mostly know the answers to my questions, but anyway, I (24F) got the VCUG at 7 and it's kind of given me a weird fear of my own vagina (even though I know my urethra is a separate thing lol), and by now I've gotten to where I can enjoy penetrative sex, but tampons, monistat, a Pap smear, my own fingers, etc are too pointy and cause me severe anxiety to the extent that I cannot mentally force myself to insert them (I put in a tampon once after 20 minutes of freaking out and I only got through my Pap smear bc my dr prescribed a dose of Ativan and my mom came with me and held my hand). Two days ago it occurred to me that there's probably a good chance that at some point in my life I will have to have a catheter put in again because it seems like a pretty common procedure and I had overactive bladder and frequent UTIs through my whole childhood (hence the VCUG) so it's not like my excretory system is in perfect shape to begin with. I know that as an adult I can refuse procedures or tell them I need to be at least mildly sedated but I'm worried they might not agree to that, and more than that, even though it's stupid to worry about it like 50-60 years in advance, I'm terrified I might be in a nursing home or hospital when I'm old and they wont listen to what I say bc of dementia and then they'll force me to be catheterized unmedicated again and the limited remainder of my life will be ruined by the trauma of it, and every time I think of it I start crying. Does anyone have experience with getting a catheter as an adult and if so (please say yes 🙏) was the doctor open to sedating you first? Is a catheter even something most people eventually have to get at some point? Is there a way to get over my genital anxiety besides just exposure therapy? Thanks for reading, I hope you're having a great day🩷