www.incontinentsupport.org

Did any of you use the VA for your treatment? My husband has an appointment in November and we are nervous about this but can't afford to use private insurance.

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Vicky Wells

Does anyone know what the VA rates service connected urinary incontinence?

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Vicky Wells

Service connected urinary incontinence is based not on severity but on the devices used to control the condition. Thats how they gage severity. I have service connected urinary incontinence and it is based on the number of diapers I use during the 24 hr period. I think there is 0% for just having the condition and requiring no "appliances" as they call it. 40% is for 1-3 diapers per 24 hr period. I get 60% for using more than 4 diapers in a day. You can look up the rating scale for the VA online for urinary incontinence. Just Google "VA rating urinary incontinence" and you will get what you're looking for. I hope that gives you some idea.

If the urinary incontinence is service connected, you can get the VA to provide adult diapers free of charge. I'm not talking about getting wings or depends, those are the cheap worthless brands. For me, the VA buys me Abena Extras and the Xplus for nighttime. I get two cases of each per month.

Don,
   Well his incontinence is a night issue and it is slowly creeping into the daytime.  He has been repeatedly tested for urinary infections and diabetes and they all come up negative.  Since it has slowly became a day issue as well we are being more insistant and he has an appointment with the VA at the end of the month.  His QTC exam says it can be a side effect of his TBI medicine though.  Will that service connect it?  As for diapers, he wears Secure X-Plus at night and plans his days around bathroom trips.

     Vicky

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Vicky Wells

The bottom line is that with the VA to service connnect anything and get disability pay from them, everything has to be documented. I had to get letters from doctors that stated certain things. So I think if you can get a doctor to actually state that his urinary incontinence is from his medicine...then I think you'll be good to go. But it has to be documented and you have to turn that in to the claims people at the VA or they won't consider it.

We had a testicular ultrasound on November 11 and our appointment with the eurologist was today.  To be clear, this was with our private insurance and not the VA.  The doctors said that the cyst was benign and non-cancerous.  It hasn't grown in the last few six months, which is good news.  They tested his urine and found nothing unusual so they called his daytime issues Overactive Bladder Syndrom and gave him a sample of VESicare to see what happens.  As for the night wetting, they said that's normal while on sleeping medicines.  We were disappointed that they didn't test for any more but we'll see what the VA says.  Any thoughts or advice?  We are specifically looking for advice on dealing with the VA!

      Vicky

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Vicky Wells

We had our VA appointment today and they are going to actually going to run some medical tests, unlike Sentera!  They scheduled blood work to rule out diabetes and check his cholesterol levels.  He is also having his urine retested for infections and what not and they've scheduled a radiology appointment to test his bladder.  Something about injecting die into his bladder?  Hopefully more information to follow in the next couple of months as we figure things out.  His PCP doctor is now aware that he wears diapers to bed and is having daytime issues too but he seems afraid of diapers as a solution because "they're for old patients!.  LOL!!  At least he is gonna test for things and he's okay with diapers as a short term solution.  Now we are back to waiting, but ironically December 7th is the date for his lab work.   

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Vicky Wells