www.incontinentsupport.org

Sorry Matthew, I was speaking from my own experience and as you can tell, it wasn't all positive. My incon issues began when I was 42,and I went through it all. Surgeries, invasive camera explorations, drugs. None was a help, and much was painful. Others here have had success with the help of their doctors, though they often stop posting here if they do.
Fifteen years later, I'm still in diapers and it's just a part of my life. It doesn't define me.

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- Tom

Thanks for your input. I don't wanna take over the thread from posting too much in it, lol, but your experience seems pretty awful. It seems like its rare to see people who have had good experiences with their incontinence getting better and their problems going away. At least on this board. :/ It gives people like me something to think about though.

Only that won't do anything either.

@matthewmeto: It is okay to "take over threads" if you're seeking help and not trolling! If you cross any lines, I am sure the mods will privately let you know.... so ask away and hijack to your hearts content!

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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Marcus Aurelius

The last advice I got from my doctor at the hospital after my operation and after I told him, that the last medication they tried on me with no succes (Betmiga) and despite they knew that I wear and have to resort to use protection aka. diapers) - was that I should start bladder training.....without giving me other words than that, and that was the end of my "treatment"

I think I gave him a funny look when he said this, though I said nothing, I have not had any response from my doctor or the hospital since. I truthfully I appreciate it, since nothing can be done, major a serious operation I cope with things as they are. Some days are worse than others but I know my body pretty well by now, so I know what to wear etc.

I've never received a single good advice from doctors. Maybe it's because I was already bound to be fully incontinent and they really couldn't help me with that, but when I was still a teenager nobody even recommended me to do some kegels exercises that could at least at this time greatly increase my bladder control. I'm doing them now, even though I definitely don't need it anymore as I wear protection 24/7, but doctors were never of any help in this case for me. It's really hard to find a really good doctor nowadays and I'm not talking about skills or knowledge, because they surely have it - but those doctors, that became doctors to truly help other people, not to only count cash. Possibly, when they were still in college they had this motivation, that they want to help others, but among those fat checks they could have lost it. I may have been just extremely unlucky though.

After having my prostate removed because of prostate cancer a couple of years ago, I've had incontinence ever since. At first, I only had problems in the daytime. But after 40 radiation treatments to get the rest of cancer, I now have incontinence at night as well. The only thing the doctors said was to either use diapers for the rest of my life, try some drugs (none of which worked or had bad side effects), or an operation. The idea of wearing diapers and/or pads did not sit well with me. But I've been using these for the last year or so. They basically work most of the time, but they are disgusting.

I then tried something that they did not recommend because most doctors don't know about these: I tried Men's Liberty EXTERNAL catheters which I heard about through a near-by prostrate cancer group. These have worked the best of all the things I've tried, but I also use diapers as a backup when I'm out of the house just in case. I've never had a bad moment with these, and overall they work. But the user must follow directions EXACTLY.

Recently my VA doctor recommended that I have an "artificial sphincter" operation to correct the valve that controls the urine flow from the bladder. After much thinking, I recently had that operation and experienced no real pain and very little discomfort. The operation took a little over an hour, and I was back home the next day. I then went back to the hospital four weeks later to have the gizmo that was placed in my scrotum turned on. But little has changed. They said it would take a few weeks for my bladder to regain itself back to a "normal" condition. Well, it's now been over two weeks and I now urinate as much as before. I get up about every hour and a half at night to go pee. But it's not too bad during the day. So, here I am at the precipice of a "cure," but it's still not happening. I hope in two more weeks at my next VA appointment that things will change for the better. But I'm not holding my breath. I've heard of people who've had several of these artificial sphincter operations and still not much relief! Well, if this doesn't work for me this time, I will just go back to my Men's Liberty, which again, has been the best thing I've tried so far.

Everyone's case is different, so there are (hopefully) different strokes for different folks. But there are worse things in life than incontinence, so I will press on and keep hoping for the best, for what else can I (we) do?

Hoping success for all of you in the same boat!

Doctors have prescribed 5 different drugs for my urge incontinence, each of which I tried for six months or so. Several of the drugs had unpleasant side effects, but none of them had a significant effect on my incontinence. I’ve also had several urologists recommend that I use an expternal catheter instead of wearing a diaper. (One urologist (that I fired) told me that wearing a diaper was “unmanly.”) I’ve tried a couple of different kinds of external catheters, but I had a couple of horrendous problems when wearing one. The single most embassassing moment that I’ve ever had as a result my incontinence occurred while I was wearing an external catheter. I was at a Christmas party at my boss’s home and bumped my leg bag against the corner of a coffee table, dumping at least a cup of urine onto an oriental rug. So I much prefer to wear a diaper.

I was diagnosed with an OAB when I was 5 or 6 and put on a medication the side effects were terrible and I was taken off of it after a year or two but even then other than a short spell of problems when I was 10 I didn't have any control issues and just needed to use the toilet more frequently until in the past year or two when I've started having issues with incontinence caused by the OAB. I've avoided seeing a doctor about it out of a mixture of embarrassment, lack of time (being an engineering student limits free time), and also due to the fact I feel like managing it like I currently do is the best option for me. I don't like needing to wear pads, pullups and diapers but to me I don't want to deal with having surgery or the side effects of medication

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-full time graduate student with urge urinary incontinence due to an overactive bladder