www.incontinentsupport.org

For those of us who are incontinent due to nerve damage,... there is no magic pill that will cure the problem of being incontinent. Being incontinent is secondary to the actual problem/cause (nerve damage). There is only one option they may help, or improve any form of incontinence that has been cause by nerve damage and that is surgery. For some, surgery offers little hope of improvement and the risks are be very high. To the best of my knowledge,...... there is very little that can be done (meds, or surgery) to "treat" this type of incontinence. However,.....there is much to be said regarding the "management" of this type of incontinence to include the type of products used which ultimately comes down to personal preference.......(what works best for you).

All of my meds and diapers are supplied by the Veterans Administration (VA) free of charge. As such, I don't have a choice as to what brand, or manufacture I receive any of the items I receive. From what I understand,.....the selection of brands/manufacture of disposable diapers is made by each region of the VA. I'm sent Depends each month whereas in other parts of the country a person would be provided with Wings. As a recipient of these products from the VA you have a choice......take it or leave it. That's the ONLY selection you have unless you want to pay the full retail price then you can buy any product you desire. There are several products that better than Depends,.....but there are some that are worse..... such as Wings,..... at least in my opinion.

During the day, most the time I use Depends with a liner and plastic pants. Using this combination of items provides me with an excellent level of protection without the bulk. For night use its hard to beat the level of protection that cloth diapers and plastic pants provides.

I'm active and mobile so during the day I want a product that is highly absorbent without the bulk and not noticeable. At night,.....I want the protection without any leaks. The combination of items I've described is what works best for me with my type on incontinence.

Hey Johnstone
Long time no talk glad to see your still on all fours I didn't realize your stuck in Depends are you sure the wings are worse One thought for you how about taking the depends selling them on Ebay and buying a better quality diaper Just a thought

Heck even just up grading to the attends with the waist band would be an improvement Granted you would still want to use a booster.

..........................Sandy

I would not want to take a chance of getting caught selling any of the Depends I'm sent by the VA. All of my meds and diapers (Depends) are sent to me each month from the VA free of charge. As such, I'm not going to kick the gift horse in the mouth by doing something that would, or could cause me to lose any of my VA benefits. The Depends work "ok" in the day as long as I use a liner. At night is where I have most of the problem using the Depends.

I've been buying some quality disposable diapers out of my pocket so when I'm out and about during the day I don't need to worry about having any leaks. I use the Depends about 2/3's of the time, and the remaining 1/3 of the time I'm using quality diapers. There's a lot to be said about using cloth diapers and plastic pants for night use. You just can't beat the absorbance of a good quality cloth diaper and with proper fitting plastic pants. I have no leaks using that combination,......just the hassle of washing diapers and plastic pants. I guess you can't have everything........

I get some of my supplies from the VA as well. They send me the Wings diapers which in my opinion, are worse than depends. They send me like two cases of them which will take me forever to use because I buy my own Abena brand. I just use the Wings brand whenever I'm running low. It was the leaking of the wings brand which lead me toward cloth diapers. I like the cloth though for night time use; no leaks so far. I use the leakmaster all-in-ones and suprima plastic pants. I also have some pin-on flannel style prefolds that work pretty well. I got them from adult cloth diaper. I get my Abena's (which have never let me down) from Gary at XP medical.

Im 17 and im still a bedwetter (with some day probs), disposable diapers work for me but its frustrating.

Welcome to the IRC, Daniel, I'm glad you found us and hope we can help you with support and answers to questions you have.

Some of us have struggled, just as you are now, thru the growing up years and wetting the bed and wondering when it will end! Doctors often saying it is just a case of maturing and it will stop on its own. Very frustraiting, just as you point out.

But, know that you are not alone! You are not the only 17 year old wetting the bed. It happens and its miserable. You've accepted diapers, disposable diapers anyway, and hopefully they make the wet bed part go away. We all like to sleep warm and dry even tho sleep wetting is happening. You will find many here prefer cloth diapers and plastic pants for better night time wetness control than disposables provide.

I assume you're OK with the situation where you live, perhaps with parents and don't have a problem with hiding the night time use of diapers.

You mentioned you have day problems and that is a sure sign that you need to see a doctor and find out what is going on. Day time wetting and wearing diapers out in public is more difficult to manage than "simply" night time bed wetting (where you have the privacy of home). Assuming you take the precaution of wearing a diaper during the day, it should prevent the miserable embarassing experience of wetting your pants while out in public....nobody needs that...but many persist and suffer the embarassment because they don't want to wear a diaper!

There is much experience represented here on this forum; so please, do not hesitate to ask questions and voice your concerns and worries.

JoeK

Hi Daniel
I'm a little late chiming in here But welcome to the Forum. We are glad to have you here.
You sound allot like me when I was your age. I'm now into my 40's and I can tell you I've never gone a night without a diaper in my life. Like you when I was your age I also had problems with leakage during the day. I wore pads during the day which for the most part worked. But of course there were times that I did overwhelm the pad

Daniel in a way you are Blessed to have this problem now and not 20 plus years ago. Your choices in protection are WAY Better then what they were when I was your age. Also the acceptance of people with our condition is much better then what it was just a couple of decades ago. Granted there is still a Tabbo about it but it's nothing to what it use to be. When I was your age you never saw a commercial for pull-ups for older children. You could never go into a store like Walmart and find protection that was marketed for children over 100 pounds My mom had to get all my diapers from a Medical supply drug store. And I'm sure they had to pay threw the nose

So anyway if your feeling down about your condition. Come and talk with us on the forum. If you don't feel comfortable talking in the open forum you can talk to individual members via private message. Paul Martin and Joe K. among others are very easy to talk to and I'm sure they will be more then willing to help you anyway they can. Or if you wish you may talk to me as well.

Hope to see more of you here........................Sandy

I'm 28 and I too have bedwetting issues. I can remember when I was like 16-17. I had unexplained bedwetting when I was a teenager that resolved when I was around 18. I went to the urologist who just did a blood test and a urine sample. They offered to put me on DDAVP. I tried it. But it didn't work. I still wet the bed without any explanation for like 2 years. I talked to my mom and begged her to buy me goodnites. But she sees diapers for old people and babies. She did not want me wearing them. At the time however, I did work and had my own car. So I would go to the local drug store in my town on the day's my mom worked and buy myself goodnites or depend's. I would hide them under my dresser to keep my mom from seeing them. I'd pull the drawer out and put them under the drawer and put the drawer back. I hated living and hiding like this. I should not have to be this ashamed about wearing diapers. I would throw away the wet diaper in the morning in my school backpack. I would just take them to school, and throw them away when I got a chance.

Nowaday's, I have complete incontinence. I use diapers 24/7 to control my functions. I am 28 now and married with two wonderful boys. My wife is good with my incontinence as long as I don't leave wet diapers in the bathroom trash. I take my stuff out immediately. My wife is very supportive. My mother is also supportive. She has come to accept my incontinence too. She knows I wear diapers. She has no problem with it as long as I don't call them diapers in front of her. She hates that term. My mother is a nurse and she was taught in nursing school to not call them that. She calls them depends or breifs. I just call them diapers because thats what I'm comfortable with. Oh well, can't please everyone.

Isn't that the truth!!
I started having problems when I was 25 and I'm 64 now. All we had "back then" was the snap on flannel lined plastic pants. You had to wear reusable pads or diapers (no disposables then). Lots of leak problems too.
Things are MUCH better now. I wear Abena M-4's during the day and Dry 24/7 briefs at night and since they're still fairly dry in the morning I use them till noon or so. I usually get at least 12 hours out of the 24/7 briefs. Yes they're each more expensive but still cheaper than two of the Abena's.

Hi,

I was a bedwetter until I was nearly 12 years old. My mum used to wake me and make me pee, yet I could be very wet within an hour. I know nowadays, I can pee, and need to pee a gain, with a very full bladder 15 mins later!

I trained as a nurse back in the mid 90's, and whilst studying at Uni, learned about the hormone we are meant to produce at night, to reduce the amount of urine we produce "Anti Diuretic Hormone (ADH). I have a theory that I don't produce this, or didn't produce this overnight. I have a theory that even now, there are some nights that I don't produce it, and have to get up once or twice.

There is no regular pattern, and it can be really frustrating.

I haven't ever questioned or tested my theory, but for me, it helps explain my discomfort.