Bladder Retraining
Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:29 pm
It's been a while since I have posted as things have been pretty much status quo lately. Over a week ago I went to the urologist again after waiting quite a while to get an appointment. After catching him up with what is going on, he recommended bladder retraining. He said he has seen some success with the retraining in others with urge incontinence, but it doesn't always work. So here I am, one week into it. I am finding it alittle challenging. According to the "rules", I am supposed to track my input/output and determine a schedule to time my visits to the bathroom. Once I determine what my schedule is, I am supposed to hold off at all costs going to the bathroom, even if it means leaking. There are tips/hints on how to try and deal with the urges when they come, but the general idea is to not go before it is time. I have done some research on the "science" behind bladder retraining to better understand the process. From what I've read, the point is to train the bladder to hold more before the urge signals are sent to the brain. Urge incontinence occurs when signals to empty are sent to the brain prior to the bladder actually being full.
My urges seem to be greatly influenced by anxiety. There are days at work when it feels like I leak all day, other days I don't have leaks at all. When I am home the urges are much less frequent. So here I am at work, waiting for my next scheduled time and I get urges. While before I would head to the bathroom, now I am supposed to sit and try and fight them off, which is not easy and quite frankly annoying. When my time finally does come, I go to the bathroom and have a hard time starting and sometimes very little comes out. The retraining seems to be OK when I am home, but at work, it's tough. I am beginning to think perhaps the incontinence should be treated from an anxiety/depression perspective, rather than the bladder side. For lack of a better option at the moment, I am going to continue with the retraining, or as my wife calls it "Potty Training". She joked about getting a sticker chart to plot my progress. Thank god for humor.
From what I've read, bladder retraining success depends very much on time and patience. It's going to be a long road.
--Jason
My urges seem to be greatly influenced by anxiety. There are days at work when it feels like I leak all day, other days I don't have leaks at all. When I am home the urges are much less frequent. So here I am at work, waiting for my next scheduled time and I get urges. While before I would head to the bathroom, now I am supposed to sit and try and fight them off, which is not easy and quite frankly annoying. When my time finally does come, I go to the bathroom and have a hard time starting and sometimes very little comes out. The retraining seems to be OK when I am home, but at work, it's tough. I am beginning to think perhaps the incontinence should be treated from an anxiety/depression perspective, rather than the bladder side. For lack of a better option at the moment, I am going to continue with the retraining, or as my wife calls it "Potty Training". She joked about getting a sticker chart to plot my progress. Thank god for humor.
From what I've read, bladder retraining success depends very much on time and patience. It's going to be a long road.
--Jason
Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:18 am
I can relate to nerves having something to do with it.Some times when I am stressed about something it is worse,But with me it is both.Bowel and urine.But I don`t care how hard I try I can`t keep from wetting or soiling my self at times.I don`t feel I need to go till it is happening.But other times I am OK.
I see you like camping and so do I.As I pull a RV and about 48 feet over all I can not just pull over any where so I all ways wear a diaper when on the road.Some times I need it some times not.They ran test when this started to happen.And never found anything.I went in the hospital for what they thought was a hart attack but was not.I just felt like crap and was wetting my self every few minutes.I had a little leak now and then for a long time but not like it is now.My wife thinks I mite have had some kind of stroke but if I did my nerves down there is all it effected.She was a nurse so I don`t know.But the doctors did not come up with any thing.
I see you like camping and so do I.As I pull a RV and about 48 feet over all I can not just pull over any where so I all ways wear a diaper when on the road.Some times I need it some times not.They ran test when this started to happen.And never found anything.I went in the hospital for what they thought was a hart attack but was not.I just felt like crap and was wetting my self every few minutes.I had a little leak now and then for a long time but not like it is now.My wife thinks I mite have had some kind of stroke but if I did my nerves down there is all it effected.She was a nurse so I don`t know.But the doctors did not come up with any thing.