Bonus Episode: Learn to Love Your Catheter with Landon Groff and MaxWell Medical Solutions

In this segment, Donna Lee is joined by NAU Urology Specialists' friend and colleague Landon Groff to discuss one of the most dreaded devices in all of urology–the urinary catheter. Many health concerns can require catheterization, but the most common are prostate issues, strictures blocking the urinary tract, and paralysis. The apprehension and discomfort surrounding catheter use led Landon to found MaxWell Medical Solutions, a company that ships catheters nationwide from their base in San Antonio, Texas. His amazing team uses their combined decades of first hand experience with catheters to reassure patients and walk them through the process of catheterization. Tune in to learn about the pros and cons of different types of catheters and how to avoid the most common mistakes new users make. If you or someone you love uses catheters and would like to learn more about MaxWell Medical Solutions, call 210-340-2217 or visit them online today!

Voted top Men's Health Podcast, Sex Therapy Podcast, and Prostate Cancer Podcast by FeedSpot

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

<silence>

Speaker 2: 0:09

Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Show with Dr. Mystery and Donna Lee.

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hey

Speaker 3: 0:16

Everybody. You're listening to the Armor Men's Health Show with Dr. Mystery and Donna Lee. I wanted to bring in another one of our very special guests. As you know, we like to bring in super special people, and I wanted to welcome everybody to this segment with our friend Landon Groff . How are you, Landon?

Speaker 4: 0:31

I'm doing well, Donna. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3: 0:33

Thank you for joining us. I've always wanted to have you on the show because you handle something that is super mysterious to me, and I guess you know what it is, but I want the listeners to know, <laugh> , if you've ever gone to a urologist office or you've had maybe a surgery or some sort of urological issue, you have to deal with this interesting little phenomenon called the catheter. And I know a lot of people's ears just perked up because they're like, oh hell , oh, hell no.

Speaker 4: 0:59

They're thinking this is worse than a four letter word <laugh>.

Speaker 3: 1:02

So I thought it'd be great to have you come on, tell us exactly what a catheter is because you have a catheter company and the company name, again,

Speaker 4: 1:10

My company is Maxwell Medical, and we don't manufacture catheters, we just distribute them to patients through insurance.

Speaker 3: 1:16

Right . Gotcha . But you handle those sorts of things, and

Speaker 4: 1:19

Any and every catheter f d A approved in the United States, we can distribute.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Oh my God, I'm so excited that you're gonna tell us all about these mystical little creatures called catheters. So why don't you tell us first, what type of patient do you see a lot and with regards to urology or men's wellness? What kind of patient or procedure would need a catheter?

Speaker 4: 1:37

Uh, you know, various issues with the prostate. I'll use myself as an example. Uh, I was paralyzed in a car accident 20 years ago, so , um, that said, I'm in full urinary retention. I've got a neurogenic bladder, and I have to intermittent catheterized probably anywhere from six to eight times per day. Aside from those things, you know, you could have issues , uh, with a stricture, which is a blockage in the urinary track , um, prohibiting your ability to, to void out urine mm-hmm . <affirmative> as you normally would. So those are, those are probably, you know, three of the, the main things that men come across. Uh,

Speaker 3: 2:15

What does a catheter do? Like, tell us like physiologically, where is the catheter placed and how is it handled?

Speaker 4: 2:20

Well, so there's a couple of different types of catheters. You know, there's an indwelling catheter that stays in permanently. It's what you're most commonly seen in a hospital. You know, you have a urine drainage bag hanging on a bed. Um, something like that. It's got a balloon inside, it stays in the bladder. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , it's a constant drain going into a , a bag. And the other way to manage urinary retention, these other conditions is intermittent catheterization. And it's, you know, technique that's as old as time. I mean, basically it's a siphon mm-hmm. <affirmative> , you know , it , it's a , a clear tube. Um, there's a variety of those. We'll talk about , um, you simply insert the catheter through the urethra into the bladder mm-hmm. <affirmative> , and you let it drain and you pull it out. So it oftentimes is referred to in and out catheterization.

Speaker 3: 3:11

So I have , um, no experience with this, thank God. And I don't have a penis, but does it hurt when you insert the catheter?

Speaker 4: 3:18

I would say it's an acquired taste. <laugh>, I'm not gonna lie to you. And I'm , I'm not gonna be one of those commercials on TV that , uh, is gonna send you to the catheter. That doesn't hurt. Yeah. Um, a lot of it is fear driven though, because, you know, I , I'll tell you right now, when I get paralyzed and I'm laying in a hospital bed mm-hmm. <affirmative> , and a doctor comes in and he's like, you're gonna have to stick this there, you know, probably six times a day for the rest of your life. And I'm like, what? Oh wow . What's the other option? He's like, well, you can have a permanent indwelling catheter and carry a bag of pee around with you for the rest of your life. And I was like, okay, we'll figure this out. Right. And, you know, intermittent catheterization, you're way less prone to infection and, you know, long-term issues.

Speaker 3: 3:56

Gotcha . And tell us more about the difference. Like, what is , um, I know a lot of people are probably wondering what does it mean to be in retention?

Speaker 4: 4:02

Being in urinary retention is your inability to void urine, you know, on a controlled level and fully emptying your bladder. A lot of you guys listening out there, you might have , uh, you know, a dribbling effect or feel like you're not emptying fully. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , you're voiding, but you're probably leaving behind post void residual urine, which can in turn, you know, kick back to your kidneys and put you back in the hospital with a serious infection. I

Speaker 3: 4:30

Was gonna say that sounds like an infection issue. Yeah. And then tell us about your company again. Um, how long ago did you start this company, Maxwell?

Speaker 4: 4:37

So I started Maxwell Medical , uh, it's been about five years ago. Uh , started shipping catheters , uh, it'll be close to four years ago. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And, you know, prior to that, I've been in this industry for a long time, worked for a couple of different companies that have since been acquired. And, you know, at the end of the last run, I was just like, you know, let me see if we can do this. And it was the right time, right place, and right people, you know, went out and learned the inside of the business as I was a sales rep for many years. And, you know, here we are four years later and we're doing a heck of a job growing at a great rate. And I, I credit a lot of that to, you know, my staff. Um, we've had great people working for us. I I've never lost an employee, you know, from termination or , uh, someone quitting on me. So we're a tight-knit group and we have great culture, but I made a couple of key changes in starting this company. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , first one being basically for you guys out there listening, you're gonna go into a room, you're in some sort of retention, and you're unable to fully empty your bladder, you have an infection, whatever it might be. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , well, you might think that you're gonna go into a clank room and doctor's gonna say, okay, here, take this pill for this many days, and boom, magic's gone. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . Well, oftentimes that's not the case. The case and a nurse walks in with a bag of intermittent catheters and all of a sudden you're like, what? I get a sick what, where four times a day and all of a sudden you as a patient, you shut down. Um, you don't ask the questions you need to ask, and you walk out the door and that's that. And then a couple hours later you get a phone call from a D M E company like Maxwell Medical, and the person on the other end of the line is trying to, to ship out a catheter order that we received from your doctor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And four out of five times the old way. We , we did it with other companies , uh, you know, we'd get hung up on a lot. And I always had an issue with that because it's not keeping the patient compliant with healthcare and their best interest for success. And , you know, either getting over this until a surgery or learning how to manage it long term . Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . So what I did was I implemented a strategy where every single new patient that comes over to my company, their first call, and however many after that, they're gonna be talking directly to somebody that's got years and years of experience personally and professionally with intermittent catheterization. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . So now four out of five of those patients we're, we're getting the order out the door to them, they're compliant with their healthcare , and as soon as they understand they're talking to somebody that deals with this on a daily basis, the wall comes down and they start asking us the questions we , uh, probably that they should have asked you guys. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, you know, I , I remember a , a patient of y'all's early on, I got great reviews on one of my employees, his name's Logan, and I sent the email to Liz and Leona mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And, you know, he basically said in so many words that he felt like my company was an extension of y'all's practice. And that's the biggest compliment ever because people are different. Everybody takes everything differently, but we are there in the bullpen. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> ready to get after it. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> and we help these guys. And so hugest compliment ever. And really it's just helping people, people overall.

Speaker 3: 8:00

Yeah. Well, and you are an extension of our company because we're sending the patients to you. Well,

Speaker 4: 8:04

Thank you for that, Donna. You know, we, we do our best and you know, not every patient's perfect, but we wanna make it as comfortable as possible for you guys. 'cause ultimately it , it's not so extremely painful, but there's a lot of hesitation.

Speaker 3: 8:16

Yeah. You need somebody soothing on the other end of the phone when there's questions. I'm sure when it comes to a catheter, you don't want some crazed employee freaking out going , it's gonna hurt like hell. Good luck.

Speaker 4: 8:24

No. And then I'll kind of jump into the types of catheters. You have a straight tip catheter, you have a coup a tip catheter, and, and that's what you most often see in a urology office. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , um, you know, various types and sizes. You can put gel lubricant on them to insert them. You can, there's pre lubricated gel catheters. There's hydrophilic catheters, which water reacts to the catheter makes it very slick. So there's not a whole lot of friction in going in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , um, a coup a tip catheter has a little bend at the end. You know, generally speaking, most men at some point in their life get enlarged. Prostate. The curve tip at the end allows the patient to get around the prostate with ease and , uh, accomplish the same thing. How

Speaker 3: 9:06

Long is a catheter? Like physically? How long is it?

Speaker 4: 9:08

Um, a standard size catheter is 16 inches. 16

Speaker 3: 9:11

Inches. I made every man jealous here. <laugh> . So tell us again before we have to wrap up. Your company name is Maxwell Medical. What's your website?

Speaker 4: 9:19

My company is Maxwell Medical. We're based in San Antonio, but we ship to patients nationwide. The website is Maxwell, like the coffee Maxwell m like Mary, ss like sam.com, so maxwell ms.com. We're, we're based outta San Antonio. Phone number is (210) 340-2217 . Awesome.

Speaker 3: 9:36

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Landon. I know you've answered a lot of questions and probably calmed down a lot of anxiety and some people knowing they have to take that road to a catheter. Uh , but you can reach us at 5 1 2 2 3 8 0 7 6 2 during the week. You can even ask for me, our website is armor men's health.com. You can send your questions to Landon if you , um, forget his website again though. It's maxwell ms.com. Yes. And , uh, but you can also send me a question to armor men's health.com and I can shoot that question over to Landon. Be sure to listen to our podcasts wherever you listen to free podcasts. And thank you so much, Landon.

Speaker 4: 10:11

Thanks, Ana .

Speaker 2: 10:11

The Armor Men's Health Show is brought to you by N a U Urology Specialist. For questions or to schedule an appointment, please call 5 1 2 2 3 8 0 7 6 2 or online at armor men's health.com.