How to decide

[Damp]

I'm not sure if anyone else has struggled with this dilemma, but here goes. I am a 78 year old male with heart failure, lumbar stenosis, and peripheral neuropathy. I also had a prostatectoy 9 years ago and have some bladder retention. I do struggle with incontinence, but it is so unpredictable. There are days where I hardly pee at all, and other days I leak quite a bit. I do wear diapers, but there are days when they are not necessary. My question is do I just give in to the fact that it's better to prepare for the worst and hope for the best? It seems like such a waist if a diaper isin't used. Maybe this is a stupied question, but if any others suffer similarly, I would appreciate knowing how you manage. Thanks.

 

[ADFW61]

In my experience, better to wear appropriate protection than have a wet bed or wet clothes! Depending on your level of incontinence you may be able to wear pull ups rather than adult diapers/nappies which may be cheaper and more reusable if still dry. They are more of a pain to change when wet though as you have to remove your trousers. I had wet the bed into my teens and so was still in nappies at night aged 14. I was then dry until my mid 20s when I suffered a spinal injury and started to have bladder problems, initially at night but subsequently day time too. I would sometimes have dry nights/days but didn’t want to risk the embarrassment of wet beds or clothing so went back to wearing nappies. Almost 40 years on I now have no bladder control and can’t actually feel if/when I need to wee so wearing nappies 24/7 is a no brainer! It means I can get on and live a normal active life, albeit with a bit of planning.