www.incontinentsupport.org

Rob, that's great info! I got your PM. I'll be giving them a call.

The only med I'm taking regularly is bupropion, but I've taken it on and off in the past without issues. I've taken it twice for smoking cessation and twice for acute depression (including current situation).

I see.. Well, you never know.. if you took it then stopped.. then it might not have affected you as much..i just googled buprion for side effects, and urinary incontinence is listed as a side effect. It would be interesting to dig into you past a bit and see if when you started wetting if it coinceded with the med. Did you suffer any injury to you back or tailbone? Also..if its not too personal to ask.. how are your bowel habits? Believe it or not.. often times constipation can cause urinary ugency, because stool can press on the bladder..giving you that gotta go feeling. I know for myself i notice that i often have urgency more often when im constipated.. i ususally remedy that with making sure i eat my greens. Don't rule out stress as a mitgating factor.. my family suspects that for me, stress was a big one.. when my issues started cropping up.. i had just gotten back from china..was starting a job.. and then.. was starting a practcium. Sure, the catapres and not emptying part played a role..but i worried about a lot of stuff.

One last question.. when you do make it to the toilet.. do you have to push in order to start the flow? or do you feel your sphincter muscles relaxing and letting go? for me.. i often had to push to get things going..which isnt good... your sphincter muscles should relax on their own..im assuming the urologists you saw before had you doing a voiding diary.. oh..those are fun, aren't they???? it might help to keep a detailed record of not only what you drink and how much you leak, but hwat you eat and how many bms you have that day..

Sorry if this is a bit overwhhelming or gets to be a bit personal. just trying to help..

Peace out!

Rob

PS.. i want to make sure you know im not guranteeing U of M will have answers for you...but they will do their very best to find out what is going on..and have innovative tools and procedures probably not available at you garden variety urologists office..

_________________
"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

Rob,

No worries about getting too personal. This is an incontinence forum, I had to get myself over the "too personal" thing before I ever posted, lol!

My bowel habits are completely normal. If anything, I've been looser than typical over the last month (but not alarmingly so).

The latest round of anti-depressant does coincide with the start of my bedwetting, and so does the other item you pointed out: stress. My wife and I lost a child a week to the day before I started having problems. That was why I started back on the anti-depressant...

The urologist is/was convinced that it's no coincidence that my problems started then. He and my GP wrote off the med because I'd taken it multiple times previously w/o issues. (once for 9 months after a divorce) The emotional trauma, though, both thought was the cause. Trouble is, everyone thought then that because it was emotionally triggered, it would go away the same way it came on. That doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm on stable emotional ground now. Even the therapist we've been seeing thinks its unlikely that emotional trauma would be causing me continued physical symptoms.

Also, testing has found anatomical and physiological issues, just fairly minor ones. The urologist is now thinking that the initial emotional issue triggered a decompensation of sorts. I have symptoms of mixed incontinence. I seem to have lost muscle tone in the urinary sphincters and am also having spasms. I've also lost quite a bit of bladder capacity since this started.

The anti-spasm drugs don't seem to be doing anything for me, other than causing side effects... The urologist had hoped we could wait them out and let them subside on their own (given the probably emotional cause) but that hasn't come about either...

He has suggested switching to another anti-depressant, but states openly that he's doubtful of benefit. I'm due to D/C the anti-depressant in a few weeks anyways, so I'm content to just let that play out.

I'm glad to get the input. Don't worry about asking offensive questions, unless you start making personal attacks, lol. I came here for help and won't fault someone for asking questions to give it!

Oh, and I missed responding to your last question:

When I do get to the toilet it's taking everything I have to hang on (I'm usually already leaking). There's definitely no push required, I just have to stop fighting and *woosh*.

That's getting rarer and rarer. I swear the sensation of urge is getting less and less, and its taking less and less to trigger a spasm. Usually, if I feel the urge and start to clench to try and get to the bathroom, I spasm and void...

The only way I can keep things reasonably dry right now is to put myself on a schedule and go before I typically have to.

My deepest and sincerest condolences on the loss of your child..thats ALWAYS very very very hard.. THe uro you mentioned.. is that ur current one or the u of m one? Hmm.. its interesting that they said that wetting and taking thje antidepressent wasnt a coincidence, yet they dont think they are related.. its possible that it isnt.. or it could be possible that in the past when you took it, it had an effect on your bladder, but it was so negligible that you didnt even notice..it could have been as benign as every now and then having to go to the bathroom more often.. but the current stress compunds the effect of the antidepressent...

ok, 2 questions for you..have they checked the prostate at all? or is that not even being considered as a cause? also.. have you sustained any injury to your back or head recently that seemed benign enough to not get treated? Has a neurolgist been consulted? have you had an MRI ever?
going the neuro route may turn up something..or.. this could be a neblous case of OAB.. which doctors don't really know the cause... i hope you find the answers you are looking for..be thankful for small things.. at this point..its just the bladder and not the bowel...knock on wood!


peace out!

_________________
"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

Rob,

Thanks for the condolences. It's appreciated.

Both my GP and Urologist checked my prostate. (Ah yes: The cold finger if injustice!) There appears to be no issue there.

I haven't had any recent head/back injuries, but I've had a few throughout my life. I've had multiple concussions, and several minor back injuries. The head injuries are decades in the past. The most recent back injury was about 18mo ago, but was minor. (at least seemingly so) Symptoms were mostly muscle spasming for a few days and it sorted itself out w/o intervention.

I've never had an MRI.

I have a follow up with my current Urologist next week.

I've already seen three different Urologists. The first, who I just didn't like, was a referral by my GP. The 2nd was another referral by my GP. He felt another member of his practice had greater experience in the kinds of issues I am having. That's who I've been seeing since. He seems well informed, and does a pretty fair job of explaining his opinions/findings, as well as risks/potential rewards. The only thing I'll fault is that he seems to be struggling with my specific case, but then I keep reading that, marketing campaigns to the contrary, a lot of incontinence cases stump the docs...

Still, the only drawback I see to another opinion is possibly having to repeat testing. I have very good PPO coverage, so no issues there. I think it's probably worth the discomfort to get either some piece of mind or a shot at fixing this...

The one thing I have to watch in myself is my tendency to obsess. Right now I've managed to "accept" and that's kept me from focusing. I'm willing to let myself zoom in for a bit if there's a chance of a fix, but I can't let it consume me, because it will. It's a personality issue...

Keep the feedback coming. It's appreciated!

Tim,

Again, i know where youre coming from with the obsessive nature of the incon..if you look on the dealing with incon board.. youll see several dozen posts by me on various topics... testing the patience of some of the moderators.. I was venting and putting a lot of thought into this predicament...

Hmm.. i wonder how closesly your injury conincides with the start of your wettting..

peace out

Rob

_________________
"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

The latest back injury was probably 8-10 mo before I started having night wetting problems, and another few months from then to daytime issues...

Now that you mention it, spinal injury would fit my symptoms pretty well... but it seems a stretch that problems didn't start for months after the other back injury issues were long gone, and just a week after the emotional trigger. Still... I don't believe I ever mentioned the back problems to my doc...