Good news and bad news about diapers and insurance

[sociologygeek]

Well laides and gentelman.. After going thru an extensive rigamarole trying to go thru tricare to see if i can get attends briefs with waistband paid for with tricare.. i cannot. tricare will NOT cover diapers..

Fortunatetly.. medicaid WILL.. the only drawback is michgan medicaid contracts with only 1 supplier for incontinence..and they dont carry attends with waistband..

However.. they do carry attends breathable.. attends 8.. tranquility..prevail..tena.. and wings..

I told the guy i prefer a diaper with 3 tapes and a waistband.. and he came up with a diaper called wings supreme. Has anyone tried this diaper? what were the results? Im somewhat hesitant relying on a generic name product.. but im assured its one of the best they have.. well..if its free.. im not going to complain..ill just use the free ones most of the time..might change often.. and pay for a case of attends or abena out of pocket for when i cant change..such as at work..

I figured out that if i orderd a case of abena and only wore abena to work (which is the most demanding situation for my incontinence it seeems..90% of the time i leak standing up..and its not easy to change while im working..i got yelled at for doing it) a case would last me 5 months.. any ideas would be appreciated..

[johnstone]

Rob,

Try the Attends 8 and see if they work for you. If a case will last you several months, then I would recommend buying a case of the type of diaper you like best. When you average the cost of a case over several months and it means the difference of getting what you like there is no question as to what I would do if you don't like the free diapers.

Johnstone

[sociologygeek]

Hey johnstone..looks like u posted to my reply both on this forum and on incontinence support.org..with different responses..thank you! Its good to get responses from different angles..over there..i did not mention the other diapers they carried... whereas here i did.. I will do as you suggested.. they said that they will send samples for me to try.. I'm defitently sure i dont want to use guards or undergarments.. pullups.. MAYBE.. Briefs most likely.. the real question is if the nurse will agree if briefs are best for me.. I think they are..

[johnstone]

Rob,
I have made posts in the two groups you mention, plus I also found another group forum at the Depends website. Three groups is plenty for me.

There are advantages, and disadvantages to the pull-up style and maybe they will work for you. If you can go all day without needing to change then the pull-up kind will work for you. I was not able to do that. I was able to go about 4 hours with the pull-on style before I needed to change or I would have leaks. If you need to change the pullup in the day, and your at work this will mean taking off your pants to do so. That's another advantage of the brief vs. the pull-on style. The negative to the brief is once you fasten those tapes you might be able refasten those tapes once, but not several times as the manufactures would like us to believe. As such, using the bathroom every few hours to help your situation really does not work well.

I don't know how long you have been incon, but I it took me a while to accept the fact that I was incon and wearing protection. I can only speak for myself, but I kinda have the feeling that it comes in steps, or stages of acceptance until you reach the point of being 100% in acceptance of diapers.

[jgrover]

My situation mirror's John's. A lot of people with Urge or neurological incontinence end up completely depending on Briefs or condom caths for all their urination. I also went through the pullups, drugs, and timed voiding phases. What seems to happen to a lot of people is they are able to manage for many years (about 6 in my case) but eventually your control gets worse and you end up having to go to a bathroom every hour to try to stay dry. You start wearing briefs more often in the day since you have meetings, long drives, or want to see a movie that is more than an hour. That's where the acceptance part comes in. While is it embarassing to be wearing and using diapers it is the most practical way to not be chained to bathrooms. Eventually you get over the guilty feeling of giving up and accepting the fact that is it easier to just manage incontinence than trying to maintain some level of control. Most insurance companies will only cover condom caths. Combined with a backup pullup in case the cath falls off it is a good cheap solution if you just have bladder incontinence. You will still need to get briefs since wearing condom caths for too long is not a good thing. Briefs are definitely more comfortable. Only when I developed ulcerative colitis did insurance pay for briefs. For men, they will only tend to pay for briefs if you have a diagnosed condition that also causes bowel incontinence.

[johnstone]

Yes, I agree with waht you are saying jgrover. I made some comments in another post "How Do You Deal With Incontinence?"

I think it just depends on the type of incontinence and the person. If you become incon with a neuro bladder all of a sudden like I did because of nerve damage from an accident, then it takes a while to accept being incon no matter how you manage it. What follows comes in what I describe as stages, or steps in managing it until you reach the point where you wear the diaper all the time and use the bathroom less and less. At least that's the way it happened to me. Now, I hardly use the bathroom for anything and it doesn't bother me now like it would have in 1986 when I become incon.

[sociologygeek]

ive accepted wearing full briefs..i find them more comfortable than anything else.. im hoping the nurse at J&B medical will agree that briefs are the best solution..because, really they are. Because, i really cannot predict what day will be a light day with minmal episodes and what day will be a really floody day.. it varies greatly..i feel safest knowing if i have a deluge to deal with.. im not wearing some wimpy pad that only deals wit ha drop or two..

[johnstone]

Rob,

How long have you been incon, and what type of incontinece do you have?

I've said about everything I think there is to be said about using the brief. I know what you mean, but I also know if you use the brief in time you will become more dependent on wearing the brief. Its kinda the next step from where you are now, but I would be the first to agree its better to wear more protection than not enough and be sorry you didn't.

If you explain your light and heavy days to the doc, I'm sure the doc will agree wearing more protection would be better. Just remember, ....and be will to accept the fact that in time,..... everyday will be a heavy day and you will be dependent on the brief for protection.

[sociologygeek]

John,

I have been diagnosed with stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
As far as how long..i can remember incon epsiodes as far back as 2005.. so its been quite a while.. never wore protection until 2008

I have been taking VESIcare, so far with no visible effects..i still have wetting episodes.. my incontinence started light to moderate.. i actually dealt with wet underwear for years periodically without thinking there was anything wrong.. but then i got tired of skin irritation.. i started with the guards for men made by tena.. and they were a GODSEND! Or at least it seemed so at the time..they really helped with the problem at the time of a postvoid dribble.. i started wearing guards more often.. i experimented with other protection types too..briefs, undergarments, underwear,, and ended up using just guards... those were fine..to a point.. for one, i hated how the adhesive sometimes just didnt stick.. eventually i got fed up with those and started wearing belted undergarments..but..then.. those started getting annying with the straps bunching up. and scrataching against my skin. so.. belted are defintely out..they were never really comfy anyway... that leaves pullups and adult diapers..

i tried the pullups.. not bad for absorbency.. but i was somewhat put off by the fact they felt like they were going to fall off if i didnt yank them up..also..when i got one wet..they seemed to sag.. i eventually made a descision to give full depend briefs a try..and have stuck with those ever since.. they are discreet enough to not be noticed under pants 2 sizes up..and dependable enough to catch the occasional really heavy episodes in conjunction with a booster pad.. ive only had 1 leak on me..and that was a really heavy heavy episode.. perhaps it wasnt on right.. perhaps i could have made it to the toilet but didnt feel like it just then.. but it was the only time i ever remembering having a leak

Now..ive been using depend breifs exclusively.. some days they are overkill.. days where i only have a dribble or two..but somedays i have moderate to heavy floods... they are really handy on those days..

I still use the toilet when i can.. my bladder seems to leak most often when im standing upright.

All for now

Rob

[johnstone]

Rob,

I think you will like the Attends. They may not have the waist band and the 3 tapes on each side, but I think you will like them better than the Depends. I kinda had the feeling you haven't been wearing protetion for very long just by some of the comments you made.

I guess there are advantages and disavantages about all types of protection. The bottom line is, whatever works best for you and you feel most comfortable with.

I don't have the option of using any other type of protection......the brief is the only level of protection that will work for me. My bladder has a mind of its own and does what it wants when it wants.