www.incontinentsupport.org

I suffer from Urge Incontinence and have been sleep wetting heavily for nearly 3 years. During the day I need to go to the loo quite often and urgently, or the inevitable happens. My Consultant prescribed Oxybutynin modified release in an effort to relax the bladder muscle.
I doesn't seem to make much difference to my sleep wetting, but does give me just that little more time to reach the loo during the day. However, the downside is that they cause me a dry mouth and lips and constipation.
Does anyone else take oxybutynin or a similar medicine and if so how do you get on with them?
I look forward to hearing your views.
Richard

Hi Richard
Reading your post and the side affects you mention reinforces my negative feeling on meds . What good are they if you have all those side effects Trust me I would love to be out of Diapers but I'll tell you what. I'd rather be in diapers and feel good over all then being out of them with all those side effects. What's really great is when they give you one drug to take care of one problem. But then because that drug creates another problem they put you on a second one to help with that side effect and so on and so on........... and then it's not long and your popping multiple pills everyday.

Funny my mother in law was taking upwards of around 10 pills a day for Blood pressure cholesterol and diabetes. She was constantly feeling tired dragged out she had Diarrhea fairly often she gained weight had three or more headaches every week and so on. She did a bunch of research on what she was taking and found most of the problems she was having were caused by the drugs she was taking. She stopped taking most of them started taking a few organic pills. and she says she hasn't felt this good in years. Shes lost weight her blood pressure is down her cholesterol is down the Diarrhea is gone headaches are more or less gone. And to be honest she looks better then I've ever seen her

My advice is stay away from the drugs .............Sandy

I agree with Sandy, there are too many Dr's that think meds will cure everything, even the side effects from other meds. Before I got my medical retirement from the military, the dr's had me on 3-4 different meds to help prevent the UTI's that I was taking. When I retired, I quit taking all of them and just started drinking cranberry juice. It did the trick and kept my UTI's under control and I felt better at the same time.

But now im on other meds for other things and the cycle continues, hehe

Hi Sandy and schoppy
Thanks for your views and your advice. I couldn't agree more about what you mention about side effects. The dry mouth and cracked lips are a bit of hassle, but the constipation has a bit more of an impact. I eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and much fibre for breakfast. I also dirnk a lot of water each day, which should help constipation and also help living with a colostomy. However, the only way I seem to be able to keep my colostomy working is to take laxatives every day as well.
I value the extra time the meds give me to get to the loo, but now that I'm wearing protection during the day, having accidents isn't so distressing. So, over time there's a good chance I'll change my mind about staying on them.
Thanks again for your advice.
Richard