www.incontinentsupport.org

I just had another visit to the hospital over the weekend. This marks my 12th. I went in Friday and was released on Monday. I wanted to add another kudos to quality medical staff. I have bladder and bowel incontinence and wear diapers. For my entire stay, I was treated with the utmost respect. I was mobile and for the most part able to take care of my own diapering needs. I did leak one night and require a nurse to help me change the bedding. But overall, it went well and I feel better. I brought along some of my own medication that the hospital did not carry. I take some heavy duty psychiatric medication and some of it is new and not on the hospital formulary. So I bring my own. I did bring another med with my doctors permission that the medical staff thought was just awesome. It was my Nullo! They gave it to me 1 in the a.m. and 1 in the p.m. They did want to know what it does. I explained that it alleviate fecal odor from bowel incontinence. I said I got the idea from the VA for use in the colostomy patients. They were fascinated. They had no idea there was such a thing. I did bring my own abena diapers. Nobody made fun of me. I had no problems.

Nice report Don, good to hear that you were treated respectfully, and no different then anyone else on the ward. Makes it all feel like it is really not such a big deal after all, although many days it sure seems to be! Puffy

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

I have not been hospitalized 12 times, but I do travel one a year to the VA hospital in San Diego, CA for my annual spinal cord injury (SCI) evaluation. The VA hospital in San Diego is one of the VA regional hospitals for SCI vets. Each stay lasts 7 - days depending on what procedure they do as a result of my evaluation. The annual evaluation is very comprehensive and is not limited to just my spine. I'm checked over from head to toe and everything in between which requires seeing many different doctors with different specialities including urology.

The cause of my bowel and bladder incontinence is nerve damage. The medical community refers to my condition as being a "incomplete paraplegic", with something known as "Cauda Equina Syndrome, (CES). CES is the the actual cause of my incontinence. Each year when I travel to the VA hospital in San Diego, I take a two week supply of my own diapers (Abena), and some type of odor control med. In the past, I used Devrom, but I recently switched to Mega Chlorophyll 100 MG, and so far I'm very pleased with the results. My hospital stay experiences have always been similar to what Don described. The few nurses that I spoke to regarding the use of Devrom were not familiar with any of the odor control meds available over the counter without the need of a scrip. For whatever reason(s), this med is only available through the VA by special request.

I don't recall ever reading any of the actual percentages, but I think "most" SCI patients that are only bladder incon use a cath, and not a diaper. Some of this may be due to the lack of mobility so it is very common for the severe SCI person to be restricted to the use of a wheelchair. I know during my hospital stay if I needed any assistance in diaper changes. I can certainly attest to the professionalism and dignity the nursing staff provided while providing assistance when needed in making a diaper change. They help special needs people all the time for many different reasons so helping others like myself was not uncommon. However, I must add that I was staying in the SCI ward of the hospital so every patient staying in that ward had some type of severe back, or neck injury.

I would think being hospitalized in a special needs ward would be very much like staying in the hospital the SCI ward of the hospital. Each patient has their own special needs and the hospital, and medical staff is there to assist each person with their needs.

Welcome back Don. I hope your condition will continue to improve so you will have no need to return to the hospital anytime soon. Besides, your two boys have told me that don't like it when your away from home because they are use to having milk and cookies with dad every Friday night while watching a movie with dad. That's what they told me. Kudos for sharing your experience with the group.

When I have to go in they have to put in a Foley. Not fun but needed!