www.incontinentsupport.org

I am new here and this is my first post.

I have been heavy bedwetter for over a year now. Of course sleep in diaper which has become no big deal.

I have tried med to no avail and made me feel really strange and dehydrated. Went to dr today too determine whether old lumbar spinal injury could be the culprit and was told it was not.

My question is--has anyone been sucess fully delivered from night time wetting to the point that you are confident enough to not wear protection to bed?

Also, day time issues are minimal though on occasion have experienced urgency and wetting events.


Also recently began havving light bowel accidents while sleeping and woke a number of times realizing I was straining.

Thanks all. Any insight will be most appreciated

The pelvic floor dysfunction you describe can have many possible causes. Find a doctor who will take your concerns seriously and who will order the tests necessary to discover the cause(s). Good luck.

Welcome to the group Chaps. There is a wide range of information here and good folks to discuss this. I would agree with Patrick about the doctor part. Most of them just want to throw meds at you with no concern of the side affects.

Chaps, welcome to the group. However, a board for people who are living with incontinence is not a place where you're likely to find people whose bedwetting has been cured. People whose urinary problems have been cured don't post on this board.

Welcome to the group Chaps!

Unfortunately I do not have good news to report.

As you probably already have seen, most medical studies address only pediatric enuresis.

From what I have found, only a few medical studies report "success" in curing adult bedwetting. I would like to emphasize the words "a few." Most such papers report only efforts toward that goal but with middling success rates. This applies to such things as bedwetting alarms and medications. Non-medical papers are not reliable sources for this topic.

The mere fact that some medical papers were written to report success in curing individual cases of bedwetting suggests a lack of broader success.

However, several pediatric medical studies report a treatment that was highly successful. Surprisingly, that was the use of tap water enemas prior to bedtime. The rationale was that the pelvis has only so much space. Stool in the rectum diminishes the space available in the bladder for urine and causes enuresis unless one awakens during the night to urinate. I am not aware of any medical studies on the use of enemas in adults to prevent enuresis.

--John
(double incontinent/bedwetter)

Not for me. I've tried at least 6 of the common meds, tried voiding schedules, kegels etc and my IC just kept getting worse and worse. From bedwetting to daytime urgency and minor leaks to now essentially having very little bladder control.

At some point I'll explore more treatment options but for now I just need a break. I wear diapers, I've made peace with that and am not optimistic of ever getting out of them. I'd love to be wrong about that, but I don't think I'm a curable case.

Welcome Chaps, you've come to the right place for advice!
My doctor has suggested several medications to help control my incontinence but he is the first to say that they really won't cure it, but just might help a bit. In my opinion if it doesn't fix it outright I'd rather not bother with the expense and side effects, especially since I take no medications for anything else. For me diapers are a much better alternative. Fortunately my Doc is pretty cool and actually somewhat agrees with me and doesn't try to push a lot of meds on me, he's a "keeper".

Chaps,

My back doctor recently prescribed Gabalpentin for my lower back and pelvic pain (due to an old accident plus surgery). You can Google Gabapentin for details.

It not only has reduced my back pain (down about two pain levels) but also has had the surprising (and welcome) side effect of reducing my OAB urgency and nighttime enuresis. You can Google Gapapentin and urology to learn more. Gabapentin is a nerve medicine that essentially calms the nerves to reduce pain and also reduces bladder detrusor contractions, reducing the total number of daily urinations and nighttime urinations due to enuresis.

If you are interested you should ask your physician about this medication.

Re nighttime bowel movements, one procedure that probably will sound shocking to you as you have not been fecal incontinent is digital stimulation prior to bedtime to empty the rectum. This involves the insertion of a gloved finger into the rectum which then slowly is rotated around the edges of the rectum to stimulate defecation. Google digital stimulation for details and Youtube for animated graphics. It may sound gross but it beats pooping your diaper and having to clean up. This is a regular nighttime routine that I follow and is approved by my colorectal surgeon. I wear cloth diapers at night and obviously do not want to wake up with a messy cloth diaper. My system has worked well for me and might work for you.

--John

Thanks all for your sharing and support. I really wondered if there was a "fix" or if we just struggled through. I know for some med seem to help but not 100 percent. I agree with above--if med only limit issue then all they do is increase number of dry nights. With no way of knowing one must wear protection to sleep any way. This is a no brainer as to wearing protection to sleep? ...or wearing protection to sleep and enduring side effects of med and who knows what long term effects of the meds.

If issues were significant for me during day then may would consider meds but day is limited to post voiding drips primarily. While my issue is OAB I have yet to not make it to a rest room except maybe 2-3 times all ways at home. Knock on wood.

Thanks again. You all are the best

There is a fix for many people....the ones who end up on forums like these are the ones that don't find those successes. Many many many people go on a med and that's it. They might combine that with other behavioral mods/exercises etc and become dry.

My urge incontinence first manifested as heavy and sudden bedwetting. It was bizarre. I wet the bed one night out of the blue. then again a week later. then again a few days later. Within a month, I was wetting every night. I was so blindsided by it. Like you, I tried diapers. I immediately made a urology appointment and was quite certain the diapers were a very temporary thing. Figured I'd go on a med, and be throwing bags of diapers away never to be used again. LOL. It took a while but I got very used to wearing to bed. In fact, if my IC was ONLY bedwetting, I'd not even care about a cure....wearing diapers to bed is enough of a cure for me. The bed is dry, I sleep well, and no need for continued embarrassing urology visits.

Unfortunately, I started having accidents in the day and over time had to start using diapers. I wasn't sure from your original post if you've seen a doctor or not. Bedwetting and any daytime issues need to be investigated by a doctor. Relying on diapers isn't a sensible first step. People typically either use them as a last resort OR at some point along the treatment continuum decide diapers are more comfortable than undergoing advanced (surgery etc) treatments.