My history with incontinence, and how it brought me here
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:12 pm
Hi everyone, my name is ZP (or whatever you want to call me). I was about to go into the (extensive) details of my medical history, but remembering that this is a forum dedicated to incontinence, I’ll just give you a summary for now, and explain how it ties in with the subject of this forum. Basically: I have a terrible immune system. The rest of my family being fairly physical or athletic, they’ve never given up encouraging and supporting me in getting out of the house and breathing fresh air. Against what was projected, I was able to attend grade school for almost 75% of my k-12 education.
I’m pretty sure I could have qualified for a decent college and was ready to do so, but not only has my family possessed very empty pockets in the last two years (myself being second or third biggest reason, so there’s no way I’m going to expect my parents to make their debt even steeper), but I’d gotten considerably worse since the tail-end of the 11th grade. I was in a wheelchair for the rest of the year, the pain was the *the worst* it had been before or since, and I had become *mostly* incontinent around that time, and haven’t recovered much since. In this state, a campus lifestyle hasn’t been an option.
I’ve had difficulties with control since forever, so I’ve been very familiar with what kind of change that makes to one’s lifestyle (especially when bedridden), but now I’ve been stuck with it since the end of highschool; and now I’m 21. I’ve been taking on various jobs and occupations online, and I’ve been able to make enough money to soften some of the financial drain I put on my family. I’ve been doing really well this year; my current short-term goal is to break even with my medical expenses + health insurance. But I’ve only been getting lonelier in that time; being at the house for a few years now.
So that’s what brings me to this forum. I’ve been emphatically participating in medical/disability communities lately, and I’ve been getting weary of how big of a distance incontinence puts between me and many of the other people in those forums. It’s one of those things like deafness, in that it’s *such* a major alteration to your lifestyle, that there’s going to be an odd disconnect if only one person does it. I mean almost all of the incontinents I’ve met have also had spinal-cord injuries, and paralysis is an *even bigger* lifestyle variable, so I kept having the same problem. Incontinence is either my second or third biggest personal medical concern right now, but it was fourth or fifth for the quads/paraplegics I’ve talked to.
Even though I assume most people are here for spinal issues, spina bifida or cerebral palsy, it also seems like *the reason you’re all here* is because incontinence is something you’re willing to talk about in-depth. I’ve never seen anything even half as detailed and thorough as the guides on this site, so I’ve been hoping that I’ve finally encountered a community hell-bent on making incontinence as un-unpleasant as possible like I am!
I’m pretty sure I could have qualified for a decent college and was ready to do so, but not only has my family possessed very empty pockets in the last two years (myself being second or third biggest reason, so there’s no way I’m going to expect my parents to make their debt even steeper), but I’d gotten considerably worse since the tail-end of the 11th grade. I was in a wheelchair for the rest of the year, the pain was the *the worst* it had been before or since, and I had become *mostly* incontinent around that time, and haven’t recovered much since. In this state, a campus lifestyle hasn’t been an option.
I’ve had difficulties with control since forever, so I’ve been very familiar with what kind of change that makes to one’s lifestyle (especially when bedridden), but now I’ve been stuck with it since the end of highschool; and now I’m 21. I’ve been taking on various jobs and occupations online, and I’ve been able to make enough money to soften some of the financial drain I put on my family. I’ve been doing really well this year; my current short-term goal is to break even with my medical expenses + health insurance. But I’ve only been getting lonelier in that time; being at the house for a few years now.
So that’s what brings me to this forum. I’ve been emphatically participating in medical/disability communities lately, and I’ve been getting weary of how big of a distance incontinence puts between me and many of the other people in those forums. It’s one of those things like deafness, in that it’s *such* a major alteration to your lifestyle, that there’s going to be an odd disconnect if only one person does it. I mean almost all of the incontinents I’ve met have also had spinal-cord injuries, and paralysis is an *even bigger* lifestyle variable, so I kept having the same problem. Incontinence is either my second or third biggest personal medical concern right now, but it was fourth or fifth for the quads/paraplegics I’ve talked to.
Even though I assume most people are here for spinal issues, spina bifida or cerebral palsy, it also seems like *the reason you’re all here* is because incontinence is something you’re willing to talk about in-depth. I’ve never seen anything even half as detailed and thorough as the guides on this site, so I’ve been hoping that I’ve finally encountered a community hell-bent on making incontinence as un-unpleasant as possible like I am!