You will wake up in Recovery and stay there until the doctor thinks you are ready to go to the ward. You may have to go to Intensive Care for a night for constant monitoring, but if you do, do not worry, this is perfectly normal for some patients.

​

When you wake up you will be aware that you have a number of different tubes in your body, so do not panic (you should also make people aware of this before they come to visit you in hospital):

​

• You will have an Intravenous drip giving fluids and medications, for the first few days, until the bowel starts to recover. The drip will be removed when you start eating and drinking properly.

• You will have an epidural infusion or a patient controlled analgesia (PCA), for the first few days, to make you comfortable.

• A Robinson drain, sits inside the abdomen to collect any fluid inside. This will be taken out after approximately five days.

• A nasogastric tube goes into your stomach and helps prevent sickness. This will be removed after approximately five days.

• If you have a neo bladder there will also be both left and right ureteric catheters, up to the kidneys, and these are removed after seven days.

• The surgeon will have inserted a catheter into the Mitrofanoff to keep it open. This should stay in place for six weeks after the operation. 

• You will also have a supra pubic catheter for six weeks after the operation, to allow the bladder and Mitrofanoff to heal. During this time one of the catheters will be connected to a collection bag, so urine can drain freely from the bladder. The other will be closed off with a spigot and care should be taken to secure this from slipping off with a suitable dressing.

​

After an anaesthetic, you may feel sick and vomit. You may have a headache, sore throat or feel dizzy. These side effects are usually short-lived and not severe.