www.incontinentsupport.org

One way I use to manage having a fecal accident in public is that I use Nullo or Devrom with every meal. I have had full bowel releases in a crowd at a high school football game, and nobody near me was the wiser. I had a good ten minutes to leave to go home to wash and change.

I have come to terms with my need to wear diapers...almost! It doesn't bother me that health professionals see my diaper. That is not a new phenomena to them, at least it shouldn't be. My biggest anxiety comes when friends and family find out. Some of my closest family members know, and a few friends but that's about it. A very close friend is about to have bladder sling surgery, and is quite open to let his friends know. With my heart issues, back surgery, etc. I have refused to have anymore invasive procedures that may or may not work. My wife passed away suddenly this past August which has really set me back. A few friends winter in Arizona, and have encouraged me to come visit them this winter. I'm afraid to do so due to my incontinence. I try to convince myself that I should divulge my need for diapers, but haven't had the courage to do so. They would definitely find out when they notice the larger amount of trash. Sorry for rambling here, but I'm sort of in the rambling around state of mind at the present.

Sorry for such an unorganized post. I hit the send button before completing my message, and started over.

It is interesting to see how our various sensitivities evolve over time. Although many of us become desensitized to some diaper issues, we seem to develop other sensitivities.

The important thing is to respect everyone's sensitivities as equal to our own. Besides, we all need to vent sometimes and that can be a big help.

--John
(double incontinent)

Fixed.

Dp

I'm sorry to hear about losing your wife.

I hope you'll allow your friends to care about you, without having to worry.

Please add my condolences. Loss of a supportive and loving spouse must be difficult. If you can explain your situation to the friends who invited you to Arizona, their support could be instrumental to your recovery. Good luck and keep us informed.

Hello Rope,

Yes - it's been quite a while since I last wrote something here, so now a little more ...:

I have been struggling with my incontinence for about 5 years now. During this time, the problems have constantly changed. After all, a lot at the beginning gives me and unclear to the doctors was now much more sense.

When it started with me, my first diagnosis after at least 3 years quite painful years was Interstitial Cystitis.

By now I know that this was only half the truth. In fact, my bladder wall was damaged in some way, but it was not IC - because normally it doesn't go away "so easily".

And here is the first good news: The bladder wall is now in order again. Half a year of Gepan instillations have done the job. That was really a great success for me, because the pain was gone. The bad news was that the incontinence still existed.

In the meantime, the prostate was measured again. Over time, it had grown so much that it caused a significant constipation problem. This would be another explanation for the continuing urge incontinence - but it was strange that I lose almost all my bladder content over a very short period of time. In addition, I now only had a very limited feeling for the filling level of my bladder. Perhaps four years ago, type 2 diabetes was also diagnosed throughout the examinations. This had never been investigated before and so it is not clear how long I have actually had it.

So there is now a suspicion that not only the prostate, but also diabetic neuropathy could be a second cause of my problems. A strong indication of this is that I now have some other neurological problems such as numbness in one of my legs and part of a foot.

Diabetes would also explain why the bladder wall did not regenerate so quickly at that time, because wounds heal more slowly in diabetes.

So this brings me to my greatest fear: I'm really afraid that these symptoms will get worse. In this case, incontinence would be a small problem and that's why I'm trying everything at the moment to keep the sugar levels down.

To briefly put it on the three points:

On the credit side there would be:

- I'm glad that the bladder wall is repaired and I'm no longer in pain.

- I learned a lot about my body and especially about incontinence. Over the years, this has helped me to deal better with the resulting problems.

- I had many good conversations with other people affected. I learned to live with the problem and accept it in such a way that I no longer have to be afraid to talk about it.

My biggest fears:

- That I could get even more neurological problems over time.

- That my detrusor hypercontractility eventually turns into a detruser hypocontractility, which can then only be managed with ISC.

- that I can't make it to my retirement because of the problems and have to go into early retirement at some point.

best regards
Michael

Hi Michael: It sounds like some progress was made -- certainly solving the pain problem must be a big plus!

I have diabetic neuropathy causing my IC. In addition to pains in the legs and feet, watch your glucose levels for your eyes (retinopathy). If you've not done it in a while, be sure to get your eyes checked by a specialist. The retina can suffer not only from bleeding (leading to blindness) but can swell, causing blurred vision. These are things that I struggle with.
With the price of everything going up, retirement at any age can be a challenge for many of us.

Hi Wayne,

thanks for the tip. I am now in a diabetic program where the lab values are checked quarterly and an eye and a heart examination take place annually. So far, fortunately, nothing has been noticed and I am quite well adjusted. The doctor says, as long as I stay with the HbA1C under 6.7 the chances are probably good are first nothing worse happens...

Well... whatever that means for the future... I try to do regular sports but sometimes it is very difficult because sometimes my legs hurt and then I have to take a break.