www.incontinentsupport.org

Hey everyone, I'm Mia,
Just wondering, does anyone have any tips specific to dealing with both bladder and bowel incontinence. What products to use, clean up tips, your experiences, anything constructive. If you have any questions for me I could give any tips or advice, I would be happy to help.

Also it would be nice to get to know some of you since I'm new here :p

Hi. I'm Don. Like you I'm both bladder and bowel incontinent. When I venture out of my house, I keep a small backpack with three or four spare diapers, wipes (I use adult wipes from Walgreens), cornstarch baby powder, and A&D barrier cream. I keep a change of clothes, shorts and t-shirt, in a plastic bag in the trunk of my car just in case. I try to be prepared.

Carrying a change is actually a really good idea, after some time I stopped taking one because I don't really leak out anymore, plus I wear plastic pants. But it's actually a good precaution I might have overlooked.
Though still I haven't had a situation recently which required one.

Welcome, Mia. I'm sorry you are double incontinent, that is double trouble. We all are carrying a heavy burden. Urinary incontinence is not fun to deal with, but bowel leakage is just awful to think about.

I think the worst part for me is the clean up. Yes, having filled your diaper with a bowel movement feels bad, but at least in wearing diapers to manage it, and the plastic pants get rid of the smell. The clean up is just terrible. Even though I've been dealing with this for all my life it's still not easy, it still disgusts me

Well I don't have much to add, other than sorry to hear how bad you've got it. This makes me glad to be just urinary incontinent.

It does sound like you've got a good handle on your situation though. Congrats for not letting this run or ruin your life.

Thanks, I've got a lot of help and support from my family in the past and I think that's one main reason, they never neglected anything and tried their best to improve the situation.
My mother encouraged me to be as independent as possible.

To say it get's easier with time is only half true. Yes, I guess I'm more used to it than I was 20 years ago. It's still a major inconvenience. But when you look at the big picture, it's not life theatening. It's not a brain tumor. Like you, clean-up for me has always been difficult. It's never gotten easier. But it's something that's been a part of my life for 20 plus years. I did at one time consider an ostomy surgery. But after talking with several people decided against it. I decided diapers were the best management tool for me. My problem has been severe bowel urgency since a bowel resection surgery (had a foot of descending colon removed due to diverticulitis). I rarely have night accidents but during the day is another story. In the beginning I had very loose stool which was a nightmare as you can well imagine. I was told to use a bulk producing fiber supplement (Metamucil) and it firmed up my BM's to the point that it's much easier to deal with. The fequency and volume have increased but at least it's not constant loose stool. You say this has been a life-long condition for you. Thank God for caring family and understanding friends. You have had to deal with this challenge for a long time. You never had continence so you haven't had to make the transition back to diapers like many of us have had to. I was a bedwetter up to my early teens so diapers weren't that big of a transition. Tough on the ego, yes. But like you, I've had a lot of support and understanding. I wish you all the best.

Thanks, actually before I became incontinent I was potty trained for a few months, then I got sick with an infection and went into sepsis, caused a lot of tissue damage and a lot of permanent damage and the incontinence was due to part of that....
Although your right, I don't really remember clearly what it was like being incontinent but when you know that other people have total control over it it gets to you....
Anyway thanks for the support, I guess over time I've gotten more used to dealing with it, even though during that time my frequency increased by a lot

I don't deal with bowel incontinence that often, but I do deal with it nonetheless, most likely due to consitpation and muscle weakness. after a bowel episode, before you do anything..i find it extremely helpful to stirp down to your diaper.. take your clothes FAR away from the bathroom.. on tile floor.. Remove EVERYTHING on the bathroom floor..rugs..mats, towels, etc.. then lay out blue pads near the toilet, near the bathtub/shower, and anywhwere ele you many need to walk during the changhng process. When you take the diaper off.. if possible.. do it ver the toilet and try to shake off as much offf hte poop from your buttocks into the toilet.. then lay down on the blue pads and wipe as much as you can off your buttocks and anus with the wipees before getting in the shower. This is where the blue pads come in handy. Any fecal matter will land onl the bluepad not on the floor. doing fecal clean up is best served by wiping down as much as possible.. then taking a shower.. and facing your buttocks spread wide open and letting the water touch them and your anus helps you to get cleaned out. I know it sounds weird, but it works. make sure you spread your cheeks apart with your hands to let the the water wash out the anorectal area too. This does mean you have feces in your bathtub..but if you did a good job wipng and got most of the bowel movement in the toilet, than any residual feces will wahed down the drain. I have had a bowel accident every motnth for hte past 3.. and my last clean up was painless because I followed these steps. In times past, i have had bowel cleanups where i got fecal matter EVERYWHEre..then i got smart and started usung blue pads and cleared out my bathroom floor... take off ALL your cllothes and put htem FAR away from you..

Hope this helps!

Peace out!

Rob

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