There has been so much pressure on the insurance companies and Medicare because of the high incidence of infection with reused catheters, that almost all will now approve up to 3 new catheters daily or 120/month.

My experience has been that you can go to your medical supply store and ask for one each of several different sizes, buy them out of pocket (not costly) and see which works best for you then ask the doc to order that size with 4 boxes a month (30/box) with 12 refills. A copy of that script is then sent to your insurance (Medicare or Medicaid or Private insurance) and you are set for the year.

What I found was that as I trained my bladder to be empty by cathing regularly, I felt more urge to void when it was full and over time, I was only getting 20-30cc cathing after voiding and was able to eventually stop.

Marie Namey, MSCN from the Cleveland Clinic ,gave a talk once that I attended on this topic. She said the average bladder holds 200-250 cc (about a cup) before the urge to empty. An overactive bladder may hold half that before the urge to go (often with leaking) and a hypo active or underactive bladder can hold 300-500cc (nearly a pint) without the person feeling the need to go. Often there is not complete emptying and those persons will need to cath.

She also said that most men void about 10cc/second and women about 15cc/second so a good way to judge how much you are voiding is to count the seconds of the stream (1 one thousand, 2 one thousand...) and then multiply the seconds by the # of cc (male or female) to get the approximate amount you are voiding. If less than 150 cc with a real urge to void , you may have an overactive bladder that might require medication to relax it. If fewer than 100 cc, you might be retaining urine in the bladder and may need to cath. (30cc = 1 ounce).

I found this information has been helpful to many people. Hope there those reading who find it informative.