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Two major hurdles cleared
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Author:  Rope_Wrench [ Thu Feb 16, 2023 12:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Two major hurdles cleared

Good morning everyone,

For those that don't now me well or my situation, I am a firefighter and have been for over 20 years. I have been struggling with managing my incontinence for about half of that but I have managed fairly well. The best advantage I had was the fact that I had enough seniority That I was able to use one of the single use dorms and I didn't have to worry about the sleeping arrangements or where to change. Well, all that changed a few months ago when I left that department and started working at another one.
The new station only has two bedrooms and one is for the shift captain and the other is for the engineer and part time firefighter. I currently hold the position of engineer so I was expected to share a room when we had a part time FF work with us. As you can imagine, this caused me A LOT of stress and anxiety because I was at a new place and I didn't know just how many different people I would have to share a room with. What I came up with for a solution is to head off to bed early so I could get changed for the night and to use megamax diapers. Those I have found are pretty quite under my clothes and thick enough to handle overnight and that little bit extra going to bed early. The other part of this solution is to put on a pair of gym shorts over my diaper to sleep in. They are thin enough that I just put on my pants over the shorts at night and now one will see a thing.

The other milestone is for the first time, I had to contact a supervisor to help me out with being able to change. No, I did not ask him to change me, don't be silly. I had told my captain at my part-time fire department that also staffs an ambulance that I had to wear but I assured him it would not get in the way of me doing my job as long as I could have time to manage things when it was appropriate. Well, I got assigned to the ambulance last shift there and shortly after getting the unit checked off we had a call. As soon as we were back in service, we would get another one. This continued till about 3PM and I could feel I was pretty soaked. I normally change around 1PM and that gives me an extra hour or two just incase I catch a call before I need to change. This day was the day I was pushed to the max. I had to call the shift captain and ask him to put us out of service till I could come back to the station and clean up and change. He was great. He called the dispatchers and put us out of service without letting my partner know we were. As soon as I got back and changed, he called them back to put us back in service. I hated asking for help and to tell him why I needed to come back to the station but he totally understood and never said a thing or made a big deal about it. Most of the time if I know I am going to be on the ambulance, I'll have a pouch with a diaper and a sandwich bag with wipes just incase. That day I didn't have time to grab it.

Author:  Padded53 [ Thu Feb 16, 2023 8:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

Just wondering if having several booster or Male Guard pads in a carry pack would allow you to basically stay on station by making a simple "bathroom break" to just change out the booster/pad inside your main diaper. This works great for me but obviously everyone situtation is different and may not work well for you.

Author:  wayne [ Thu Feb 16, 2023 11:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

Wow, it certainly reads like you've been through some trying times. My hat's off to you for your continued service even in light of your personal challenges.

Author:  Patrick [ Fri Feb 17, 2023 11:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

Kudos on your successful management under those stressful conditions. Such success breeds confidence and success for the rest of us.

Author:  5bugles [ Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

Good for you, Rope! I saw where you left the other dept. Hope all is well at your new place. I also left my dept. and am helping fill shifts at another department. Thankfully, they are just day shifts right now, but I did some overnight shifts in the past with them and had a similar situation - back to back to back calls and a maxxed out MegaMax. Grateful I don't have to do 24s there.

Would love to catch up with you sometime. Look me up on FB one of these days.

Author:  CityGardener [ Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

I can relate. A while ago a moved my office into a bigger building with more people. It has taken some getting used to. I needed to remind myself that nobody really cares why I am going into the bathroom with a bag. If they did notice, I suppose I have to not care.

Glad to hear things are working out well.

Author:  JDinVirginia [ Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Two major hurdles cleared

Good for you Rope. You have handled sensitive matters commendably.

--John
(double incontinent)

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