www.incontinentsupport.org

Hi all,
I had cut back my caffeine intake to zilch before our trip to France in December. The result was no dribbling, no wetting at night, all good. But I have an hr drive home from work and I often have struggles staying awake for the 3:30P.M. drive home so for the last month I allowed myself to drink a 12 oz mug of 1/2 caff coffee around 2 each day. Still though I hadn't noticed dribbling or wetting except very rarely.
Not so today (Sunday). I had the 12 oz mug of 1/2 caff this a.m. when I got up. On the way to 10:30 Mass I dribbled through my dress pants so I had to drop the family off and go back home. I hadn't worn a diaper in daytime for a long time but I put one on today. I found myself dribbling through Mass and I fully urinated twice into it before Mass was done.
Moral to the story: I can't have caffeine. My prostate must be particularly sensitive to it because I dribble and seem to produce s ton of urine.

G

gtrudeau88,

Although I regretted reading of your accidents, they did yield the knowledge that caffeine is the culprit, which is useful knowledge. Switching to a stronger stimulant might make things worse. Good luck finding either reliable protection or a safe stimulant to replace coffee. No way would I want to give up my coffee habit.

With the interstitial cystitis/overactive Bladder this is one thing that is a "no go" for me. I wear protection 24/7 for leakage but caffeine (and alcohol) both send my bladder into overload. I'll be peeing every 10 minutes and leaking like crazy. I only drink alcohol with a foley in and have cut out caffeine entirely. Wife wanted me to try caffeine free green tea, I'm pretty sure that's not completely caffeine free as every time I drank it, it sent my urinary frequency off the charts.

gtrudeau88,

Sorry to read of your relapse. I am an avid coffee drinker. It is the only vice I have left and would hate to have to give it up.

--John

I truly enjoy the taste of coffee. I have a very developed palate and I appreciate the complex flavor of good coffee as I do a Cabernet Sauvignon. When I gave it up I substituted various herbal teas. My problem is that I like coffee and there's not a lot of decaf varieties out there. Also I want to nap daily around 2:00-3:00 PM and I often have trouble staying awake for the 3:30 ride home from work so I drink a coffee around 2:30 or so. Always 1/2 caff though.

I'm kinda surprised that I had so much trouble yesterday morning. I don't recall having the dribbling problem after my afternoon coffees so something must be different in my body in the a.m. I kept protection on all day yesterday and all night but by mid-afternoon the dribbling and urgency was done. I'm leaving right now (6:30 a.m.) for a cup of coffee and chess with a friend of mine. I'm only going to take 1/2 caff and I'm wearing protection just in case.

I hate prostate enlargement but I know things could be worse.

G

Like you, I learned to appreciate the flavor AND the kick to keep up an extreme work life. I used to drink 10+ cups a day. I wonder if that had anything to do with the development of OAB. Now I try to limit coffee to a cup a day. I go really crazy sometimes and have two. Insane headaches if I avoid coffee.The effects for me are nearly instant need to pee. It takes 2 hours to get over my joe. Funny how you unconsciously learn the timing.
My big downfall is wine and beer. It's a one two punch. It loosens the mind a bit to where I forget the effects. It's a fantastic diuretic and gives me urge problems that overwhelm me. So if I drink at all, I pad up cause I'll be needing it. I really enjoy long evenings with family and friends and drink moderately (learned a long time ago not to get drunk). But I know that I'll be having some issues. I guess I'm not going to let oab run my life. Well, at least not 100%....lol...

I had coffee this morning like I stated earlier. No issues with urgency or dribbling. How can caffeine cause me issues yesterday but today is fine? How can incontinence be so $%*^% sporadic?

Perhaps your incontinence is caused by a pinched nerve that is occasionally unpinched. When the pressure is released, it behaves normally, but when it is disturbed, incontinence results.

I had no idea that a pinched nerve can cause incontinence. How would bladder or sphincter nerves get pinched? Can sitting too long do that?

G

I know caffeine is one of my triggers too. I try to avoid it in every day life, but being a full time student and working a full time job makes it hard to not need that pick me up. I switch up my protection to help with those issues. On days where I feel alert and got enough sleep, I try and get away with more discreet protection, e.g. a pad and pull up or pad and underwear. It works to varying degrees. On days where I know I need caffeine, I will definitely put on a brief beforehand. I will typically have leakage no matter what, but with caffeine the leakage will worsen and the urgency and frequency will increase dramatically. I used to drink soda like it was water, but since experiencing issues I've drastically reduced my soda intake as well. Fortunately, its never resulted in voiding in the diaper completely like in your case.

Cutting out caffeine is incredibly difficult, and doing it cold turkey is a miserable experience. The best way to manage lowering caffeine intake is to gradually reduce overtime before reaching that zero point. I feel like caffeine is one of the more dangerous and addictive drugs out there for how readily it is available. I also wonder how many people with caffeine addictions suffer from incontinence/oab/leakage issues.