How much water do you actually drink
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Archives1
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32-48 oz. for the past six years.
I would return to drinking much more like I did before I became incontinent, but given that my worst symptom is peeing every 5-60 minutes while I’m in bed, I try to limit my liquids as much as possible, including gravy, ice cream, yogurt, etc.). It’s bad for the rest of the body, but what’s worse than being dehydrated is not being able to get any sleep because of peeing too much at night. I’d much rather be dehydrated.
I would return to drinking much more like I did before I became incontinent, but given that my worst symptom is peeing every 5-60 minutes while I’m in bed, I try to limit my liquids as much as possible, including gravy, ice cream, yogurt, etc.). It’s bad for the rest of the body, but what’s worse than being dehydrated is not being able to get any sleep because of peeing too much at night. I’d much rather be dehydrated.
Archives1
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I drink about 64 ounces a day. I have stage 2 kidney disease so I don't care much about the incontinence, because I need to keep my body flushed out as I see it. I have had urge and stress incontinence for a year as of the 18th of January. At first I was like most folks just leaking like a fire hose. After about 4 months and hundreds and hundreds of kegals behind me I was down to wearing 2 depends a day. Now with thousands of kegals behind me, I wear 1 depends a day and have minor stress incontinence. This last year was a struggle. I was very fortunate to have retired this year. If I was still in the work mode, I would probably be ok, but I am certain that I would be up to 2 depends a day. All I can say is walk while practicing your kegals. I think that helps a lot, and keep at it no matter how much water you have. Keep in mind your body runs off of water. Don't weaken it by cutting back on water. I think that's very important. Good luck to you.
Archives1
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@snow Hi Snow - I agree with you. We all know that it is better for your body to stay hydrated, but of course if you can't get to the bathroom fast enough - too late! Very frustrating of course. I do have A cup of coffee which I know I should avoid, and a bit of water here and there, plus taking my vitamins. That is it - Pam
Archives1
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I drink about 3 liters of water every day (if it's not hot or I'm active on hiking or bicycling, then of course more), additionally to my cup of coffee in the morning. I've learned the hard way that keeping hydration low is a bad idea. At the beginning of my urge IC (which I first kept for myself) I limited my fluid intake, which had of course a positive effect to my continence, but struggled with beginning cognitive issues, feeling wobbly, couldn't concentrate well in my work. My wife of course remarked in a short time my low fluid intake and asked me if I knew how this harms my body and why I did this - I opened up to her telling about my IC issues, I went to my doctor, examinations etc. Finally I learned to accept my situation, of course went back to a normal fluid intake feeling much more healthy and active again, switched to proper protection and I don't care any more if I have to use it.
Archives1
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Three or four mugs of decaffeinated tea in the morning, a glass of milk and a bowl of soup at lunch time, a mug of degaff tea afternoon, probably two glasses of water with dinner, a mug of decaff tea in the evening - more if I'm really thirsty. Roughly about 2 litres a day. I am with Hbic60 in wanting to stay properly hydrated and using protection all the time. And I know it's not so easy to get a good night's sleep if one is wanting to go frequently.
Archives1
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Of cause drinking have an influence on the mictation frequency - how ever - it‘s a bad idea to try to fix the problem by drinking less water…
There are no confirmed „standandards“ that let you calculate how much fluid your body needs (forget the 2 liter rule…) - how ever - the easiest way to find this out is to watch the color and smell of your urin (asuming you do not take meds or drink/eat something that influence the color/smell. To dark/strong smell mean to less fluid intake.
For me the optimum is between 2.2 and 2.6 Liter per day. But again - this hardly depends on the temperature, wight, you activity level and how your body react to activies / temperature.
There are no confirmed „standandards“ that let you calculate how much fluid your body needs (forget the 2 liter rule…) - how ever - the easiest way to find this out is to watch the color and smell of your urin (asuming you do not take meds or drink/eat something that influence the color/smell. To dark/strong smell mean to less fluid intake.
For me the optimum is between 2.2 and 2.6 Liter per day. But again - this hardly depends on the temperature, wight, you activity level and how your body react to activies / temperature.
Archives1
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@Hbic60 You can over-hydrate yourself and get really sick, too. It’s called Hyponatremia and can even be fatal. It can stop your heart. You should ask your doctor how much you should drink per day. Most (American) doctors and literature will say to drink 1.9 liters / 64 fl. oz. Three liters is over-hydrating unless you’re doing hardcore hiking or a cardio work out that makes you sweat all day - or maybe your job makes you sweat all day. If you sweat that much, you should probably drink an electrolyte drink because you need to replenish those minerals lost in sweat, not just the water. But that’s between you and your doctor.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
www.everydayhealth.com
Water intoxication: What happens when you drink too much water?
Drinking too much water can lead to water intoxication, which can be fatal. However, this is rare. Learn about the symptoms, causes, and risk factors here.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
Hyponatremia: Signs, Complications, and Outlook
Yes, it’s possible to drink too much water and put your health at risk. Hyponatremia is a condition in which the blood’s sodium level drops too low. Learn more.
www.everydayhealth.com
Archives1
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I really wish I was one of the people with Nocturia who don’t wake up when they have to pee. But I’ve had severe insomnia that has even been life-threatening at points, requiring hospitalization three times because I hadn’t been able to sleep in a week. Because I rarely sleep no deeper than the first level of sleep, I easily wake up every time I have to pee and it’s hard, if not impossible, for me to fall back to sleep efficiently. By the time I fall back to sleep, I have to pee again. I get 10 doses of Ambien each month to help me sleep through the pee awakenings every third night. Ambien is the only sleeping medicine that will keep me asleep through the painful pee urges. My doctors think I only need to sleep every third night, as if! I need to sleep EVERY night!!!! I love waking up to a wet diaper instead of waking up to pee! I’d give anything - 10 years of my life - to be able to sleep good Every. Single. Night. especially without taking a medication that causes dementia.
I accepted my insomnia blight a long time ago, and that doctors don’t care about it nor believe me, even though they’ve seen it themselves in my sleep studies and during a year when I worked with a sleep clinic with PhDs and M.D.s. My brain neurologist (who I see for chronic migraine and because I’ve had a lot of concussions while snowboarding) thinks I have narcolepsy, but I can’t fall asleep during the day if I try. If I have narcolepsy, he can then prescribe a really nasty-tasting, strong medication named Xyrem, which is comprised of “the date rape drug”, formally called GHB, that he’ll prescribe me if I take another sleep study, but I don’t want to take a drug that scary and gross, nor do I want to do another sleep study. And I’d have to take Xyrem twice per night because it only lasts for a few hours, which sounds obnoxious. I just wish I could get enough Ambien or Xanax to sleep through the pee awakenings every night.
So, you see, the option left for me is to be a little dehydrated at bedtime, so I can wake up hopefully “only” five times per night to pee. My condition makes me pee not very often in the day, but mostly when I lay down horizontal. I hate it. Waking up five times per night is plenty disruptive to my sleep; I can’t handle any more awakenings than that. So I consume less fluid (32-48 oz.).
I will say, Botox absolutely helps decrease my bedtime awakenings to maybe three instead of five. It’s miraculous. Totally worth it. And I have next to no daytime accidents for at least three months when I’ve had it. I need Botox and Ambien for good sleep.
I accepted my insomnia blight a long time ago, and that doctors don’t care about it nor believe me, even though they’ve seen it themselves in my sleep studies and during a year when I worked with a sleep clinic with PhDs and M.D.s. My brain neurologist (who I see for chronic migraine and because I’ve had a lot of concussions while snowboarding) thinks I have narcolepsy, but I can’t fall asleep during the day if I try. If I have narcolepsy, he can then prescribe a really nasty-tasting, strong medication named Xyrem, which is comprised of “the date rape drug”, formally called GHB, that he’ll prescribe me if I take another sleep study, but I don’t want to take a drug that scary and gross, nor do I want to do another sleep study. And I’d have to take Xyrem twice per night because it only lasts for a few hours, which sounds obnoxious. I just wish I could get enough Ambien or Xanax to sleep through the pee awakenings every night.
So, you see, the option left for me is to be a little dehydrated at bedtime, so I can wake up hopefully “only” five times per night to pee. My condition makes me pee not very often in the day, but mostly when I lay down horizontal. I hate it. Waking up five times per night is plenty disruptive to my sleep; I can’t handle any more awakenings than that. So I consume less fluid (32-48 oz.).
I will say, Botox absolutely helps decrease my bedtime awakenings to maybe three instead of five. It’s miraculous. Totally worth it. And I have next to no daytime accidents for at least three months when I’ve had it. I need Botox and Ambien for good sleep.
Archives1
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Last week I had a root canal, so I was horizontal for 1.5 hours in the dental chair. Even with Botox, I peed my pants; I didn’t think ahead that I would need a diaper. I should know better by now! Because I was on nitrous, I didn’t realize I’d peed their chair until they turned the nitrous off and I went to stand up. I hope they didn’t smell it and that I didn’t leave a puddle 
Archives1
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@Pammy53 Thank you for your sympathy. Because it makes x amount of people do things like drive in their sleep, and because they found out it causes dementia, most psychiatrists or PCPs don’t prescribe Ambien any more unless something really drastic happens to you like a spouse or parent dying. And then they’ll prescribe it for a few days or a month if you’re lucky. I went through eight psychiatrists in the past seven years to get my current PhD nurse, who I like. She gives me 10 Ambien doses per month which is more than I had for six years - whew! Is it any surprise I could finally return to full-time work after five years of being non-functioning since becoming incontinent?!?
I had a really great psych nurse practitioner from my age 27-40. He prescribed me Ambien every night. He and I got along really well; he really understood me. But then he retired and moved away! I’d give anything to see him again! Oh well. He remains my favorite medical practitioner of all time. He was a nurse practitioner, just like my current lady. I find that nurses come from a place of true compassion and caring, while doctors tend to be more like automatons who don’t even bother to make eye contact with their patients. Nurses spend more time with you.
Right now I’m in a good spot for which I’m grateful: I like my psychiatric nurse lady, my new urologist (she’s female; yahoo!!!), my dermatologist, my orthopedic surgeon, and my spine/pain doctors (both female). My PCP is decent - and female - but I’m thinking I’ll try to change to an Internist because I think there’s something she’s not fully understanding. I have no OB/GYN; I fired the last one 1.5 years ago because he would only take GYN patients between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. It’s very hard in the state (Utah) with the greatest children to adult ratio, to find someone who is *just* a gynecologist and not an OB. When there are pregnant women in the picture, a non-pregnant woman, even when she has aggressive cancer and needs a hysterectomy ASAP (like I did four years ago), will never come first. So I’m still looking for a GYN, preferably female, because that is one thing men just don’t understand… though I did have a good male GYN back at UCLA.
Anyway, I’m a big fan of switching physicians if one isn’t polite to you or not effective.
I had a really great psych nurse practitioner from my age 27-40. He prescribed me Ambien every night. He and I got along really well; he really understood me. But then he retired and moved away! I’d give anything to see him again! Oh well. He remains my favorite medical practitioner of all time. He was a nurse practitioner, just like my current lady. I find that nurses come from a place of true compassion and caring, while doctors tend to be more like automatons who don’t even bother to make eye contact with their patients. Nurses spend more time with you.
Right now I’m in a good spot for which I’m grateful: I like my psychiatric nurse lady, my new urologist (she’s female; yahoo!!!), my dermatologist, my orthopedic surgeon, and my spine/pain doctors (both female). My PCP is decent - and female - but I’m thinking I’ll try to change to an Internist because I think there’s something she’s not fully understanding. I have no OB/GYN; I fired the last one 1.5 years ago because he would only take GYN patients between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. It’s very hard in the state (Utah) with the greatest children to adult ratio, to find someone who is *just* a gynecologist and not an OB. When there are pregnant women in the picture, a non-pregnant woman, even when she has aggressive cancer and needs a hysterectomy ASAP (like I did four years ago), will never come first. So I’m still looking for a GYN, preferably female, because that is one thing men just don’t understand… though I did have a good male GYN back at UCLA.
Anyway, I’m a big fan of switching physicians if one isn’t polite to you or not effective.
Archives1
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@snow Thank you snow. I know that I told you that after my husband had a below the knee amputation, he took Ambien one time and ended up in the closet on his way to the bathroom.- My issue is quality of life if you have no issues with Ambien. Truth be told I had no idea about the dementia aspect, - I like nurses better than doctors. I was there everyday for my husband's hospitalizations, IF I saw a doctor with him,I would always think of questions to ask after they left the room. Even though my sister is a nurse, I like nurses. Nurses will almost always tell you everything. Even things the doctors don't mention. Good luck with the finding a OBGYN even in Utah.(don't get the 1hr.appointments guy) Females at least back in the day, understood when I would tell them that I had really bad cramps. Really hope the next doctor you find is akeeper.- Pam
Archives1
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@snow don't worry, it's not too much water I drink! Firstly I make every day a one hours work-out on my Hometrainer with a lot of sweat, secondly - caused by a heart stroke 2 years ago - I have a daily schedule of several pills controlling heart beat rate, blood pressure and other values. One of them is for accelerating dehydration, so my doctor asked me to take care of drinking more to compensate that. My blood values (and my overall condition of course) are checked regularly, so everything is very fine since then so far - except of my UIC, which I've learned to accept. So all in all I happily able to live a very normal life, and I'm very sorry for all the troubles you have with your health and it's encouraging how you try to handle all of that!
I can feel with you with your lack of sleep which I had too at the beginning of my IC - I also got up up to 7 times a night, with every slight urge I woke up, went to the bathroom (often without success) and without being able to fall back to sleep within minutes but needed more or less half an hour for that. I decided for myself to switch to good diapers in the night and forget about sprinting to the bathroom. I doing this now since a couple of months, for myself this was the best decision, since then I wake up every morning well rested without any lack of sleep. In know this might sound distinguishing or strange to give up in a certain way some of control left over my bladder, but for me counts the result. I don't care too much any more what others may think about my handling of this, as long as me (and of course my wife) are comfortable with what I'm doing and how I handle my issues.
I can feel with you with your lack of sleep which I had too at the beginning of my IC - I also got up up to 7 times a night, with every slight urge I woke up, went to the bathroom (often without success) and without being able to fall back to sleep within minutes but needed more or less half an hour for that. I decided for myself to switch to good diapers in the night and forget about sprinting to the bathroom. I doing this now since a couple of months, for myself this was the best decision, since then I wake up every morning well rested without any lack of sleep. In know this might sound distinguishing or strange to give up in a certain way some of control left over my bladder, but for me counts the result. I don't care too much any more what others may think about my handling of this, as long as me (and of course my wife) are comfortable with what I'm doing and how I handle my issues.
Archives1
Staff member
I have heart failure and was told to drink 4 liters of water per day. I can get 3 down, but it's difficult to get the 4th one down. I had some incontinence issues before my prostatectomy nearly 6 years ago. I have become accustomed to the need to wear diapers. At least I'm still alive at 75.
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