Your doctor and incontinence

I was wondering if those of you who deal with incontinence have been pressured by your health care providers to deal with your incontinence with more medical treatment. I've mentioned in some other posts that my providers seem to take a dim view of my decision to take a status quo attitude towards my incontinence issues. I take Flomax and it helps greatly with my ability to go. Unfortunately it does very little for my urge problems. This leads to accidents if a bathroom isn't available.

I understand that their job is to produce the "best" health condition available. But I have severe reservations about proceeding with the invasive tests and surgical procedures necessary to bring about a "cure". It also costs a TON of money to have them cure me. So, there seems to be somewhat of impasse with my principal care provider and I. I believe I'd get the same attitude or worse from most other providers.

I am a DL but this has nothing to do with my reservations to have what they believe are necessary tests and procedures. Has anyone else been confronted with this problem?

Metoo, This definitely a very good point for truly incontinent people. As myself being incontinent and wear disposable diapers 24/7 because of a spinal cord injury. I've been told by three different neurologist surgeons that no surgery will fix my nerve damage that causes my incontinence. I can accept that. The thing that upsets me from my urologist is that he thinks I should use a catheter all the time with a leg bag instead of wearing diapers. Will I totally disagree with him. I'm 47 and live an very active life as much as possible , Im not just sitting in my easy chair. I've had many UTI infections using catheters. I have been wearing disposable diapers 24/7 now for almost seven years now with no UTI infections. I have adjusted my lifestyle that was needed for wearing diapers. I'm just more comfortable dealing with wearing diapers instead of constantly being cathed. Maybe someday it will be best for me, but I know it's not for my lifestyle now.

Off on a tangent here.... I have BPH. Sometimes frequent urination - but for the most part no problems. EXCEPT: I do go on long walks with my wife - 2-4 hours at a time. Drink lots of water and never have to pee while walking. But as soon as I get near the parking lot (which has a porta potty) - I get an uncontrollable urge to pee. Same thing with car drives - as soon as I get close to a bathroom I HAVE to pee. My doc calls it "proximity incontinence" - but that doesn't shown in google. I saw an article where they called it latchkey incontinence. I think it's a form of urge incontinence. Very seldom do I wet - but the urge is very strong. Doctor offered no advice other than to relieve myself.

When I was first diagnosed the only thing cure mentioned was an operation to "expand" my bladder by surgical means, needless to say I did not and would not try that out as it was far too risky and did not have a very good success rate ?

My bladder would need emptying when approaching home or work or on seeing or hearing running water amongst many other things and this has not changed at all, only the ability to "hold it" has gone, it now goes straight into the nappy !

Over the years many have said "try this and try that" but no one has ever said "stick with nappies" as it is the one thing that "has" worked for me?

I am now going to try a catheter but given my history and bladder condition it is unlikelly it will be of any help to me, the reason I am going to try it is a consistant campaign hy the continence nurse to "get out of nappies" which is ridiculous considering my number 2 issues are increasing ?

I know every persons problems are different in some way or other but none of the health proffesionals sing from the same book !

Rant over, now I will get up shower and put on a nice new nappy ?

I understand how you feel. My husband started wearing man diapers about two years ago. He not only had bladder problems he had bowel movement problems also. It took about five years of pain and suffering before we found out what the actual problems were. You name a test and he has had it done! In the long run it was a combination of autonomic dysfunction and lumbar spinal stenosis. Autonomic dysfunction has to do with bodily functions that take care of themselves (Automatic). Stenosis is an abnormal narrowing of a passage in the body. My husband had lumbar spinal stenosis. In the lumbar area there are twenty two nerves that are protected by the passageway in the vertebrae. That's the series of small bones forming the backbone. There are several projections for articulation and muscle attachment, and a hole through which the spinal cord passes. That hole is attacked by calcium deposits and it closes up putting pressure on the spinal cord. That pressure can modify the function of the bowels and bladder. It's a neurological problem taken care of by a neurologist and a neurosurgeon.

My husband is a retired Orthopedic Surgeon so he was well aware of what was going on. The biggest problem for him was his "PRIDE". He could not believe something like this could happen to him. Here is what I did to snap him out of his ass backwards thinking. He had a urologist he saw for years. This doctor died of kidney cancer! I said, you took care of many people now concentrate on taking care of yourself!

So, he had two back to back spinal cord surgeries about six weeks ago. He had x-rays, CT Scans and MRI's etc to help pinpoint the problems prior to surgery. Guess What? He's not wearing diapers any more. It took about five weeks before mother nature took hold and brought things back together. That however would not have happened without the necessary surgeries.

I'll suggest if you are having problems similar to what my husband had then see a doctor. Should it be a stenosis problem that cannot be cured but it can be fixed. You want to fix it before the stenosis gets so bad that permanent damage is done. Then there is no fix! People have lost their legs by waiting to long. My husband was very close to that. And don't let pride stand in your way!

I have BPH - which causes frequent urination. Sometimes - especially in the mornings - I just sort of dribble - very weak stream. Otherwise, my stream is pretty normal, but I do have to pee a lot, often with little volume. We go for walks for 1-2 hours - drink a fair amount of water and I never have an issue of having to pee while walking. BUT, when we get near the car - and porta-potty - I get an uncontrollable urge to pee and sometimes leak. Same thing when driving, I'm fine until I pull into a gas station or get anywhere near a toilet. My doc calls this "proximity incontinence". Not a medical term but describes the problem well (I looked on the internet and the only similar article talked about "latchkey incontinence"). I don't need pads or anything - but I don't wear khaki pants/shorts anymore in case I dribble a bit!

I have been incontinent sine my late 40's. I had all the tests done and it was decided my diabetes was the main cause of my bladder problems. I was then refered to the continence nurse for practical help in managing my problem. Since then occasionally my diabetic nurse mentions it and I see the continence nurse periodically but my Doctor never mentions it at all.

My medical notes state I am urinary incontinent and enuretic so I guess the medial profession think I would ask for help if I needed it.

Like Stevewet I started to have serious problems just before my 40's and had all the usual tests of which gave no simple diagnosis.

I then got passed on to the "continence" nurse who sorted out some pads for me.

About two years later after things had got a lot worse I requested to see the "continence" nurse once more to find a really good nurse had taken over and she really looked after me so well I did not need to see her again for almost 10 years.

Only once did a doctor mention my inco problems and that was a work medical, she was amazed how I had even got past the initial job medical let alone coped with it full time.

Did not understand her "interest" in my condition as no one else ever mentioned it.

Everytime I see a doc now it is someone new and it embarrases the heck out of me having to run them through it all.?