www.incontinentsupport.org

For me the urgency has unfortunately gotten worse with age and childbirth. I attribute it to pelvic floor dysfunction. My urge incontinence is pretty bad now. I 've tried the meds and the side effects are worse than the relief that I get from them.
Depending on what I eat or drink, I can go from 0 to 100 within 5-10min. If I feel the urge to use the toilet, I start to look for a toilet. Its less of a problem when I am at home. However, I still wear protection because I may be caught outside working on the garden. I always wear protection when I am out and I have added boosters for added protection.
I don't know if others with urge incontinence would describe their symptoms the same as me. For me the urges are so intense that I feel like my muscles just give out. I slowly start to leak as I go to the bathroom and the urgency becomes exponentially worse and becomes a full bladder void at its worst. Early on I would get frustrated about why I couldn't hold it in longer. I was frustrated that I just needed to squeeze harder or do something to keep it in. I would try breathing exercises as I went to the toilet. I would try to talk to myself to reassure myself that I would make it. The words of self-reinforcement didn't help. Telling myself it was just a leak was never true. It was never just a leak unfortunately, it was more often a larger accident than that. Now I just try to do my best to make it and if I don't, I am ok because I am prepared.

Because I have a neurogenic bladder, I guess you could describe it as urge incontinence. When I can, I try to use the toilet as often as I can, because, if I wait for the urge to come, I will be in pain, and leakage will start. Often this is just a few ounces, but I still need to wear protection.

Sometimes I try to tighten my muscles and see if I can control the leakage but it doesn't do any good and often I don't get any feeling of urgency until after I start to leak.

Keep up your Kegels; go to pelvic floor physical therapy, when your doctors think it's appropriate, and keep us informed. Good luck.

'tis the scourge of urge...

I too have urg and overflow incontinence,I usually have one to two minutes before my bladder lets go. Cold weather makes it worse,also I cannot hold it when I first get home.Like you all I deal with it with diapers and rubberpants.

A really strange event took place 3 nights ago. I was sleeping on our recliner, as usual, due to my back pain and one of our cats gave me a "chiropractic adjustment". She jumped onto my lower ribs and then walked around on them. This set off a major, painful back spasm. However, my incontinence has not been a problem since. Everything associated with my bladder appears to be functioning up to spec. No idea how long this will last but it is a welcome break from my routine the last few weeks. Wishing you all the best and will keep you up to date. Stan

Damn, sounds worth it!

take whatever you can get. my cat seems to think its funny to jump from the floor to the bed and land on my nads. 99/100 times. not that big a deal but that's the Maine coon 17lb fat-ass
that does this.

The thing about chiropractic adjustments is that they never last very long. My IC is back to "normal". However, the break was nice and the effect pointed to a possible problem around T-10 which my doctors have never looked for. So we just keep on keeping on. Stan