My Story – Submitted by: Michael
I grew up with what my family, friends and I thought was simply a quirky bladder. I had difficulty with toilet training and, due to frequent bed wetting incidents and daytime accidents, wore training pants and plastic pants through first grade. Although I learned to conceal my problem, several years ago it became bad enough that “a quirky bladder” was no longer an acceptable description. Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: Anonymous
I’ve always had some bedwetting problems, but in the last few years they have become worse due to the fact that I have passed several kidney stones over the years, and it has affected my kidneys, and caused me to wet the bed more than usual. I have tried several different things, and none of them seem to have any affect on the bedwetting problem. Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: Nora
First, thank you Simon Foundation for allowing voices to be heard on what has been past stigmatized and silenced.
I am a woman in my thirties who has struggled with incontinence my whole life. I hid my condition for a long time, because I had learned to feel shame and guilt and act in denial.Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: Nancy
It was April 2012 and I was 48 years old. I had been struggling with back problems-herniated disc on the shoulder and middle of the back and a continuing gnawing in my pelvic area. After many MRI and CT scans the doctors recommended physical therapy and an occasional pain med. As I actively participate in my doctor’s program I did have relief in my back. However the gnawing feeling in my pelvic was not correcting itself. Then one day while waiting for my physical therapist in the waiting room I had my first incident of bowel incontinence. I was mortified! I saw my pain management doctor that day. The next few days were filled with nerve tests and CT Scans. Nothing showed up on the tests. Though I kept having bouts of bowel incontinence. I was also losing weight and very fatigued. Finally I began searching the web for help and found Simon Foundation for Continence. This was my life saver. I read many articles on the site and one of them suggested seeing a gastroenterologist for medications and to be given a diet.Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: Anonymous
I am a 63 year old male with incontinence, due to damage to my bladder nerve, and I also have enlarged prostate leakage. I wet in my sleep, due to my nerve damage and leak a little when awake, due to prostate enlargement.Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: Anonymous
I am almost 40 years old and suffer from adult nocturnal enuresis, the medical term for bedwetting. The following letter describes some of my experiences dealing with this disorder and my thoughts and feelings on the use of diapers to manage the problem. I think that some of my ideas might seem controversial, but I feel many people probably feel the same way but they’re afraid to say so. I realize this letter is long-but I feel that many of these ideas bear repeating. I thought that by sharing some of my experiences it might help people come to terms with their use of diapers to manage bedwetting.Continue reading
My Story – Submitted by: James
I have cerebral palsy and started life at a special school in Chicago where the physical therapy staff routinely diapered the kids who had accidents. This was nearly 60 years ago. Some of the students wore diapers regularly. As a deterrent, I suppose, they made fun of the kids who had the occasional accident. The method of humiliating punishment was general. Boys were made to feel sissies, changed into girls’ underwear; girls and boys ridiculed as babies (“How many babies need changing?”), and shaming was applied as a general deterrent. Maybe it worked in a number of cases. But I have come to believe it was precisely the wrong way to address the problem. At the time there was only one other special elementary school in the city’s public school system.
My Story – Submitted by: Dave
Hello. I am a 30 year old male who wets the bed almost every night for as long as I can remember. I wear diapers to bed for this and have worn diapers since I was about 10. My PCP can not find a cure for me and has sent me to a urologist and they have tried many things but nothing helped. My wife has been understanding throughout our 3 yr marriage that if she wants a dry bed then I must wear a diaper to bed.Continue reading
You may find yourself hurrying a lot to find a bathroom if you have an overactive bladder.
Overactive bladder (OAB) is a condition in which the bladder can spasm and cause a sudden, intense and frequent urge to urinate. In some cases, these urges can lead to episodes of involuntary urine leakage, which is called urge urinary incontinence (UUI) or “UUI-wet.” Overactive bladder contractions that send you running to the bathroom quite frequently, without any leakage is referred to as “UUI-dry.”Continue reading
As we age, it is important to report any symptoms of underactive bladder to your healthcare professional.
While you may have heard about Overactive Bladder (OAB) due to lots of media attention, many do not know about Underactive Bladder (UAB). UAB is a syndrome that includes the urinary symptoms of hesitancy, straining and incomplete bladder emptying in the absence of any blockage of the bladder or the urethra. The current definition of underactive bladder (UAB) states, “UAB is characterized by a slow urinary stream, hesitancy, and straining to void with or without a feeling of incomplete bladder emptying, sometimes with storage symptoms.”
UAB is a serious, ongoing, and difficult disease and it has serious consequences if not treated. Your healthcare professional may refer to underactive bladder as detrusor underactivity, hypotonic bladder, flaccid bladder, lazy bladder, and detrusor hypoactivity. A diagnosis of UAB is usually confirmed with pressure flow urodynamic tests and patient history. How many people have UAB is not known, and studies are needed to determine its prevalence.