Brain Injury

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Anyone have any experience with incontinence due to a brain injury. My wife had brain swelling due to Spinal Meningitus. It's been 5 months and the bed wetting at night is extreme. She has some cognitive issues and the confusion or short term memory issues may be causing some of this. Just looking for some help.

 

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Howard very sorry you AND your wife had the trauma of a frightening illness. Your doctors from that time may have moved you along as a success story as the illness and swelling was treated and presumably she is home.
The first step is to contact the specialists and hospital in brain injury and ask if they have any support groups for brain injury recovery or can guide you to on line forums that offer support. If they arent helpful try your general practitioner office or any doctor in your knowledge that is a sympathetic ear. The specialists might be simply moving on emergency patients so not focised so much on recovery but a friend who has been treated for brain tumor found hers very helpful and they offer support groups for brain issues.
The next thing is to "come along side" your wife. This means to be working in tandem to cope with the after effects of traumatic illness as you BOTH experienced it and are a TEAM.
To address the current issue of incontinence you probably need some quality diaper for night time. Many people here swear by northshore confid dri 24/7. Northshore is an incontinence supply vompany, you can google the name or someone here can give you the contact.
To speak without judgement simply be calm and matter of fact. Say something like "honey. I know this unexpected peeing at night is just a side effect of the meningitis but a lot of people have this problem so i got this underwear product so we can both sleep more comfortably. Lets try it since theres no quick fix while you are getting better. Then we can both sleep well"
You should have a good waterproof matress cover you can buy in the bedding aisle of places like Walmart, i suggest a full slip on like a plastic sleeve not a sheet style topper or a fitted sheet style but get the eladdtic and metal corner grips to keep a fitted sheet one in place.
It can be sponged off with a lysol type product when you change the sheets.
If you have a damp matress already try some baking soda or srmstrong scented carpet powder (sold for pet smells at the grocery i the household cleaning aisle )sprinkled liberally on the matress and put the matress cover on, after a few days of sleeping on it vaccum up the powder. Im told Natures Miracle enzyme spray which is a Walmart product is very good it is in the pet aisle where they smell pet urine odor cleaners. Use liberally as directed and soak up with paper towels.
Doing things like this without discussing but just doing is supportive and shows nonjudgement if you can do it without drama or cussing.
I am much harder on my self and tend to cuss outloud and throw stuff around angrily (ehen im home slone!) but my family will never know how their quiet supply of support products like night diapers and changing my matress cover help me to cope with my feelings of rage and inadequacy at this behavior of my body, nightly incontinence.
Feel free to stay in touch here. Many folks are on the forum with many different levels of incontinence or bedwetting but to each of us its a very hard issue to live with. Tslking here helps.

 

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Howard, I am 31 years post-injury and can tell you that time is the key to recovery with brain trauma. Depending upon how severe the damage was, her symptoms will likely come and go for the foreseeable future. This will be frustrating for both of you and it will seem like there have been complications or setbacks sometimes, but these will simply be the bad days. Expect them. They will happen. And they will pass.
In my case, the headache,memory problems, cognitive issues etc have never completely cleared - though with most people , I think they do - over time. Regarding the incontinence, remember that the brain is working overtime to figure out how to do things in a new way, or how to accomplish what it used to do the way it learned it initially. Life may be different for you both but that doesn't mean it won't be good. Don't give up - you are already on the shortest path to where you want to be.

 

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no, I haven't

 

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MayMay,
Great writing. You certainly have a gift.
Thank you for your post.

 

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Jeff, excellent info. Thank you.

 

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Jeff is always full of intelligence and grace. He lives in dignity after a life changing event.

 

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@Howard, I can't really tell you for sure. What i can tell you is that I've had bedwetting issues to some extent my whole life, but they've been mild most of my adult, up until just after my 30th birthday. At that point it went back to being multiple times a week.

About a year after that, I was diagnosed with having superficial blood clots. I had them frequently. It too about couple of years, and I started having DVTs, and then pulmonary embolisms. After the embolisms the bedwetting went to bring nearly daily.

Eventually I was diagnosed with a genetic clotting disorder. I'd had it my whole life. I also got diagnosed with multiple hormone deficiencies, stemming from my pituitary problems, so i got an MRI of my brain. It's riddled with tiny white matter lesions; way too many for my age. My neurologist doesn't have a great explanation, as I have a bunch of tissues factors for white matter disease, but they are all already being controlled by medications. It's possible I've been having micro strokes for years, before I knew about the clotting disorder, and I've been slowing accumulation brain damage.

It's not a traumatic brain injury, or a specific focal event, though there were some punctuated accelerations in the bedwetting issue, but there is brain injury none the less.

I deal with the bedwetting by having a waterproof mattress cover, and wearing diapers. It's the best solution for living with this long term.

I also manage the adult bedwetting sub Reddit of she wants a place that's a bit more focused (and a bit more populated) to find comradery.

 

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Howard, I am 31 years post-injury and can tell you that time is the key to recovery with brain trauma. Depending upon how severe the damage was, her symptoms will likely come and go for the foreseeable future. This will be frustrating for both of you and it will seem like there have been complications or setbacks sometimes, but these will simply be the bad days. Expect them. They will happen. And they will pass.
In my case, the headache,memory problems, cognitive issues etc have never completely cleared - though with most people , I think they do - over time. Regarding the incontinence, remember that the brain is working overtime to figure out how to do things in a new way, or how to accomplish what it used to do the way it learned it initially. Life may be different for you both but that doesn't mean it won't be good. Don't give up - you are already on the shortest path to where you want to be.

 

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Thx Jeff.

 

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Howard, I am 31 years post-injury and can tell you that time is the key to recovery with brain trauma. Depending upon how severe the damage was, her symptoms will likely come and go for the foreseeable future. This will be frustrating for both of you and it will seem like there have been complications or setbacks sometimes, but these will simply be the bad days. Expect them. They will happen. And they will pass.
In my case, the headache,memory problems, cognitive issues etc have never completely cleared - though with most people , I think they do - over time. Regarding the incontinence, remember that the brain is working overtime to figure out how to do things in a new way, or how to accomplish what it used to do the way it learned it initially. Life may be different for you both but that doesn't mean it won't be good. Don't give up - you are already on the shortest path to where you want to be.

 

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Thx Jeff,

I appreciate the insight. Everyone tells me this is a marathon, not a sprint. We humans tend not to be wired that way. I am learning as we go along.

Again thanks,

Howard

 

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MayMay always gives good advice.
ER after bad fall hitting head, and they found brain cancer. My IC went from some (mostly mild, worse at night) to extreme. For whatever reason, it took them 6 weeks plus to get around to operating, and it remained bad in hospital, got better once on feet at home, but hasn't returned to pre-injury/cancer.
Have had more than my share of hospitalizations, interactions with doctors/nurses, and it is the one and only time i met nurses i didn't respect. I wasn't allowed to change or help change a diaper for - get this - liability reasons.
Exercise seems to help, avoiding certain foods and chemicals. See the threads on here about foods and chemicals.
Wishing you luck.
God bless.