Acceptance permanence

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This site concentrates on treatments options and ways to get rid of your incontinence. I have MS and severe nerve damage to my bladder and bowels. I'm not sure it will ever get better. Are there cases where incontinence isn't really treatable and one should focus on acceptance?

 

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Acceptance of a permanent condition such as incontinence is a process. Those of us facing that position all approach it differently. So, the answer to your question is 'yes'.

 

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"Are there cases where incontinence isn't really treatable and one should focus on acceptance?"


short answer...yes.

Once a nerve is damaged, it cant be fixed.

I have accepted it and lead a good life.

 

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I’m happy you guys have accepted it. I feel like a lot of the rhetoric around Incontinence is “it can be fixed” “it’s not normal” shames people who are stuck with it and who it will most likely get worse for

 

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acceptance is hard, just to imagine the rest of your years dealing with it is really depressing sometimes but i guess we gotta push ahead

 

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I go back and forth on this. I have had to deal with the problem for 29 years now but only about 2-3 years ago did it become an everyday issue. So, knowing that I am going to have problems, I always wear some kind of protection. When it got worse, I knew what to do about it and thought it would be a temporary thing. It didn't phase (sp?)me because I didn't care anymore- and had 'come out' about it to some of the people in my life. Now,though, I do have days on which I find it frustrating and inconvenient. I mean, what do you do on a long drive out in the country when your bladder keeps emptying itself and all you have on is a good (but not premium)level of protection? I do have to say though, that I am blessed - I keep a well stocked change kit in the car that includes a seat cover and a pair of jeans - and, that I didn't learn the hard way to do so. The worst I have had to endure is a pair of jeans that were obviously wet, and on a couple occasions people who were aware of what I was doing in the bathroom stall. I try not to complain or feel sorry for myself. Acceptance was easy but it has been intermittent as strange as that might be.

 

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For me incontinence for the rest of my life is a relatively minor problem. Far more important are my broken neck and spinal damage resulting in paralysis below my chest and continual spasms and muscle contractions leaving me in severe pain all the time. I have been out of my house only about 6 times since returning from a spinal injuries hospital in 2013, all of them hospital visits. I often doubt whether this existence is worth having but it is not because of my incontinence.

 

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Barry, Thanks for putting my stress incontinence in perspective. Blessings!

 

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I agree. It sounds great to find the "right" medicine or "fix" to what ails us. I briefly tried the medicnes to no avail. While frequency was reduced and symptoms lessened they did not cure my issues, only temporarily alleviate. So, my issue is primarily bedwetting where reduced frequency and symptoms are wonderful they don't relieve one of the responsibility to manage the issue, i.e., for me heavy absorbancy diapers (Morthshore and Abena are choice). So wetting happens less frequently but no way to know when. As we weigh this and the fact that we are still responsible for using protection over and against the way the medicines make you feel in addition to the full complement of potential health hazards it becomes, for me any way, a no brainer.

So permanent acceptance is for me the reality. I know every night before laying down that I will have to use protection. I am fortunate that any day time problems have been extremely limited with the exception of leakage due to enlarged prostate after urinating and two incidents of waiting too long to make it to restroom and emptying bladder in clothes. For the nearly nonexistent day time issues I am thankful and realize it could be simply a matter of time before they become more frequent. Until then I will accept my issue and deal with it accordingly at bedtime and avoid the side effects of dry eyes and mouth, headache, constipation and diarrhea(both of which present their own problems).

Sorry to take so much time but wanted to acknowledge that permanent acceptance is a viable option and indeed one that have taken.

Thanks all. Merry Christmas.