www.incontinentsupport.org

I'm too (like a lot of people) resorting to use diapers (for outings and night). I'm really considering (read: harrassing my uro ) to try a leg bag instead. I'd like to hear some feeback about it or other ways to cope. There's got to be more things than just diapers!

I'm using detrol which helps a lot with urge, but not completely, and imipramine for night accidents, but it's hardly doing anything.

Have you checked out the Chapter in our Primer; Condom Caths and leg bags? It'll give you a general over view of what's involved. Results will vary greatly ofcourse, when ever you are counting on sticking a condom on your penis to prevent leaks. Many men have only high praise for condom caths and if they can work for you, they are much more convenient than diapers; no changing. Much more comfortable; the vast majority of your skin is kept nice and dry. There are strap on urinals (McGuire being the big name) but I've no experience with them and haven't heard much positive comment about these. Perhaps some satisfied users will post some experience.

Hi

I doubt whether my reply will help you, as strap on urinals for males quite obviously are very different from female ones (which I think they don´t even make anymore). Anyway, your question brought back memories, which I thought I might share with you. Ages ago I tried a strap-on urinal. The brand name I believe was Burnette and the device itself was made of soft brown rubber. It did work fairly well from the protection point of view when standing up or walking, but was at best iffy, when sitting down. Chaffing was a problem and the leg bag tended to balloon, when walking.
I gave it a serious try, I tried anything and everything in those days, but very soon gave up and went back to my pants and pads. I don´t think I wore the contraption more than maybe half a dozen times if even that before discarding it.

Regards

Marjorie

Marjorie,

I presume that your urologist wants you to use a catheter and a leg bag. There are two different ways a catheter can be used. Firstly, it can just go in via the urethra and this works fairly well but can cause infections as you can probably guess.

The second way is a supra-pubic catheter, i have one, which is inserted through the abdominal wall and drains again into a bag. These are much lesslikely to get infected, in fact I have had one for several years without any infection. The snag here is that a catheter can get blocked and with the urethra as normal, leaks can ocurr. I suppose you have normal feeling so would be able to know if this was happening. I am paralysed from the chest down so have no idea what is going on.

I would suggest that the urethral catheter might be helpful for odd occasions where changing would be hard but necessitates a long skirt or trousers to hide the bag. However, I can't see there neing much improvement for you generally with a leg bag or a noght with a bedside bag and you lose freedom of movement in bed and a bag on the leg getting heavy is not that much.

Post again if I can help you more.

_________________
Paraplegic T6 from Transverse Myelitis

Just "updating"... I did ask my GP to get a referral to see another uro, and surprisingly, he didn't put up a fight for it, argue or anything... It may be a while before I get to see this new uro (especially because of the holidays), but hopefully this one will listen and answer questions... I'll post more news after the appointment (don't even have a appt date yet).

Jason C.

One who uses diapers does not need to worry about an indwelling (inserted in the penis) catheter. If one uses diapers one must have involuntary lost of urin without an indwelling catheter. What one uses is a condom catheter. I use a condom catheter during the day... and the leg bag is modified to attach to my undershorts and not to lower part of my leg. During the night I use triple thick pull up diapers from Loving Comfort and plastic pants. This type of use between catheter during the day and diapers at night prevents me from having any skin problems with continueous use of the condom catheter and diaper rashes from continueous diaper use.

IMRinKY (I am retired in Kentucky)

I gave the catheter a try early on with my "problem". I did everything the doctor said and still ended up with a urinary tract infection. Being a guy I just ignored feeling a bit out of it, I attributed my ill feelings to my sinus troubles. My temperature went up to 106 and I was starting to hallucinate. I eventually got my temp down discontinued the catheter approach and gave the McGuire Catheter a try. That was a short lived endevour. I got sore, a rash, it leaked, could not be worn at night and was not comfortable. I now stick with a quality pair of disposables (Abena) during the day and Abenas and a cloth diaper at night. Naturally day or night I use plastic pants for insurance. No problems now. That is my nickle's worth.
Schoe

I use a Bard Urocare reususble condom catheter. Take it off at night and wash it with soap and water and let it dry overnight. Then I put a another one on. I have no problems with it at all. I do use a strap to hold it on and it stays put.
There is also a new bag holder on the market. It is supported by your belt so you don't have that weight on your legs. go to catheze . com and look at it. I love it cause I have neuropthy in my legs.

Never tried a McGuire urinal, took many tries with just about every manufacturer of condom cath, but the Mentor silicone ones are about the best for all the ones I tried, certainly not for everyone, but good if they work for you, and nice to avoid being wet in the morning, and changing during the day and when out, that is the biggest hassle of disposables... Puffy

_________________
Puffy
BC, Canada
Fighting the "Bladder Battle" since 1995