www.incontinentsupport.org

There are different types of Treatments and Medications that are available for people to try and see if it helps on controlling our incontinence.
Some treatments and meds have really helped people to the extent that some have either reduced the need or totally eliminated the need to wear diapers.

This section is for those different types of treatments and/or medications that have been used to treat incontinence.

Have you been prescribed meds or went through some form of treatment?
Please post what you went through and how they have helped.

Schoppy

Tamsulosin and Trospium here. They helped a little, but the side effects wasn't worth it.

Vesicare 5mg took me from several floods a day to 1. My bladder spasms are Very painful so I appreciated it. 10mg took me to 1 or 2 floods a week but gave me some retention, bad constipation and dry mouth. I also found it frustrating that I still had to wear nappy style pads and they still constantly leaked during the flood. 5mg was worth it but 10mg wasnt.

Botox improved things even more but gave me some retention and made me feel like I was walking on egg shells. I couldn't change clothes myself so if I didn't cover for the rare flood, I'd risk being in wet clothes all day. I also had a relapse of my health condition after having the botox and had severe arm weakness for a time which didn't resolve fully. I don't know if it waa the botox or the anaesthetic.

Honestly, I'm 'enjoying' the freedom of having a catheter. If pads had ever fully contained stuff for me and the spasms weren't painful, I might feel otherwise.

I was caught up with having retention so dr put me on tamsulosin to stop the uti's which it did bun my incontinence is always there must wear diaper dally.

8 mg of Flomax for swollen prostate and self-intermittent catheterization 3 times per day for post-void urinary retention.

Diapers, of course, for urinary leakage. I was trying out external catheters fairly successfully until there were preempted by the need for intermittent catheterization.

For bowel incontinence, intensive Kegel exercises and daily morning soapsuds preemptive enemas to clear "stuff" out and prevent fecal accidents.
I received training in pelvic floor exercises at a specialty clinic.

Not sure whether this is within the intended scope of the topic, but daily digital rectal self-examination to detect the presence of feces, digital stimulation to prompt a bowel movement, and digital removal of feces as required. This occurs before my daily enemas.

--John

John,

Wow! Your daily bowel regimen leaves me deeply impressed. The spinal injury that caused your incontinence must have been one (expletive deleted) accident. I am glad that you survived, and that you have chosen to share your wisdom with the rest of us. Thanks and kudos.

Thank you Patrick. We all do what we must to cope and it becomes routine for us. It is so helpful that we can learn so much from each other, as well as provide support to each other.

Think how difficult it must have been for incontinents 50 years ago to find the kind of valuable information that we so freely exchange in this group! Most of what I know about managing my incontinence I learned not from my doctors, but from other incontinents in serious online support groups, the best of which has been our group!

--John

My urologist diagnosed me with non-bacterial, chronic prostatitis. He said, "We don't know what causes this, and the treatments for it are hocus pocus." He prescribed Flowmax. I had a massive allergic reaction to it and almost had to go to the ER. I have a follow up with him in a few weeks, and he might try a different medication.

If you are having urine retention problems, that can cause urine to back up to your kidneys, also it will give you uti's I was put into a Foley after I failed my Urodynamic test. I've worn a Foley for 4 years now.