www.incontinentsupport.org

I have a rare side effect of my bipolar disorder medication making me incontinent. I take these meds to control my moods so I can do things like go to work, school, and have a family. I have to take these drugs. The problem is they are making me incontinent. In Jan 2009, I had a full urodynamic workup complete with cystoscopy showing no abnormality. I just had a small bladder capacity and I retained a small amount of urine. I saw the doc due to slight leakage after I urinated. At the time I just wore a guard or pullups. Now my incontinence has evolved over time, I now have OAB with urge incontinence. I urinate anywhere from 8-12x a day. I do sleepwet and also leak when I cough or clear my throat. I wear Abena extra's or Xplus. I change 4-5x a day. I also have occasional bowel incontinence due to frequent diarrhea. I have had this checked out too. I have had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, stool studies, CT scan, and blood test. All normal. No explanation as to why I am leaking stool on myself. My GI doc thinks I have frequent diarrhea from the Lithium that I have to take. I think all this is related. I was trying to go to a research hospital here in Florida but its not covered by my insurance. I am a veteran and have Tricare and they want me to go to the local Naval Hospital to get checked out by there urologist. The naval hospital on this base is quite large, its not a small one. So I'm going there to get checked out on March 25th. Hopefully, they can give me a better explanation as to my bladder and bowel incontinence.

Good luck with the medical checkup at the naval hospital!

My appt. got moved to the 22nd. I am going to meet with the doc and discuss my options. They aren't doing any tests that day. It's just a meet and greet. I'm hoping they will do another urodynamics to see if there is any change in the results from 2 yrs ago. My incontinence has gotten much worse over the last couple years. And I'm curious as to if anything has changed.

Thanks ADHB. I think I'm about as mentally prepared for those tests as I'm gonna get. I'm just tired of being probed. Know what I mean? But I want answers.

I went to the uro doc today at the naval hospital. He is going to do another urodynamics to see if anything has changed since last time. He also did a PSA on me b/c he said my last PSA like two years ago was a little elevated. But he said that can occur with catheterization. The frequent cathing can make the levels go up. My urodynamics is scheduled for April 1st. He said I definitely have a complicated case. But he said we could try botox, an interstim implant, or pelvic relaxation therapy. I don't want the implant or the botox injections. I think I'd rather do the therapy. Has anyone had this done? Did it work? What does it involve?