My Story – Submitted by: Gary
My story is simple yet it has its moments. I did not have any incontinence difficulties until I injured my back at work 4 times in 1 year. The doctor said it was nothing major after looking at the x-rays and sent me on my way, workmans comp covered the cost since I was hurt at work. These injuries occurred several months apart. I cannot say exactly when it all started but I woke up one morning with a slightly wet bed. I attributed it to excessive night sweating and forgot about it. I had my attention grabbed when after going to the bathroom and seemingly emptying myself I had an accident. Again since I had never had any problems before I just forgot about it and went about my business. Fortunately I was at home and had a paper to work on for my masters program at school. Sometime during the paper I felt the need to go to the bathroom and shortly after that before I could get up, I flooded myself. That really grabbed my attention. After cleaning up and being afraid I might have another release, I covered that “lower region” with a makeshift diaper made from a thick bath towel.
I did some research on what had just happened, talked to the doctor and found I was having some form of incontinence. The trick is that it is not consistant. I never know if and when I may have a relapse. I can go for days with no problem of any kind and then the dam breaks and I am constantly having problems(wet). The doctors say I am not completely emptying myself. I do not know if I am or not. I cannot tell.
Anyway, to make a longer story very short, I wear protection to bed every night and have some sort of protection all day, so I guess you could say I am a 24/7 person now. At first I felt like a fool and said to myself the usual: “Adults do not do this!” I have long gotten past that point and have learned to live with it and not allow it to destroy my life. I may be stuck with this for my whole life now or it may go away some day. I cannot say, but life is more than diapers, plastic pants and the like. I will not be trapped by something as mundane and simple as incontinence.