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Staff member
Hello all,
I'm feeling a mix of immense relief and embarrassment as well. I write this. It's such a load off of my shoulders to know that I'm not the only person in the world who struggles with this issue, but at the same time, it's humiliating as I'm only 22 and this is my 17th year dealing with nighttime bedwetting/incontinence/OAB/whatever. I guess I should start with a bit of history. I actuallly haven't struggled with wetting the bed for my entire life. I was fine until I was about 5 years old, when several cousins did some not so nice things to me (I was the one who got into trouble, though). That's when I started wetting the bed, and, unfortunately, I was always yelled at when it happened, which seemed to make it worse. Since then, there have been periods of my life when I've wet the bed less (3-4 times per month instead of 5 days a week), but it's never completely gone away.
I visited a urologist and she did several tests (I can't remember their names at the moment) and tried prescribing medication, which worked about 20% of the time, so I stopped taking it and flushed the pills down the toilet. At a follow up visit, she and I talked a bit more in depth, and I told her my suspicions that it was trauma/stress related, and she agreed with me. Lately, it seems as though nothing is working. I manage my stress as best as I can (eat a whole foods plant based diet, exercise to de-stress, drink water, talk things out, etc.), stop eating food & drinking water 2-3 hours before bed, and use a mattress protector, but this entire summer I've been waking up completely soaked nearly every single morning. It doesn't help that I'm also a very heavy sleeper (especially if I'm stressed or exhausted), so setting alarms doesn't help all of the time, either. It's extremely frustrating and annoying. I despise having to shower so often (I have naturally dry/sensitive skin, so if my bladder was okay, I would only shower about 3x a week and take wash ups in between), and I'm getting sick and tired of rewashing my laundry every day. I just want to be able to wake up dry and hop out of bed without going through an hour long clean up process before getting my day started.
During the daytime, I'm usually okay, although I feel like either my brain or my kidneys isn't sending/receiving the right signal. Sometimes I'll get extremely sudden urges to go 3-5 times in the space of half an hour. Other times, I won't have any urges for 2-3 hours and only end up making a trip to the bathroom because I realize how much time has passed. I've only had a couple of accidents during the day, and that was usually due to me drinking a lot of water before driving to work (I have a 60+ minute commute) or thinking I could hold it when I really couldn't.
Looking forward to learning from everyone here!
I'm feeling a mix of immense relief and embarrassment as well. I write this. It's such a load off of my shoulders to know that I'm not the only person in the world who struggles with this issue, but at the same time, it's humiliating as I'm only 22 and this is my 17th year dealing with nighttime bedwetting/incontinence/OAB/whatever. I guess I should start with a bit of history. I actuallly haven't struggled with wetting the bed for my entire life. I was fine until I was about 5 years old, when several cousins did some not so nice things to me (I was the one who got into trouble, though). That's when I started wetting the bed, and, unfortunately, I was always yelled at when it happened, which seemed to make it worse. Since then, there have been periods of my life when I've wet the bed less (3-4 times per month instead of 5 days a week), but it's never completely gone away.
I visited a urologist and she did several tests (I can't remember their names at the moment) and tried prescribing medication, which worked about 20% of the time, so I stopped taking it and flushed the pills down the toilet. At a follow up visit, she and I talked a bit more in depth, and I told her my suspicions that it was trauma/stress related, and she agreed with me. Lately, it seems as though nothing is working. I manage my stress as best as I can (eat a whole foods plant based diet, exercise to de-stress, drink water, talk things out, etc.), stop eating food & drinking water 2-3 hours before bed, and use a mattress protector, but this entire summer I've been waking up completely soaked nearly every single morning. It doesn't help that I'm also a very heavy sleeper (especially if I'm stressed or exhausted), so setting alarms doesn't help all of the time, either. It's extremely frustrating and annoying. I despise having to shower so often (I have naturally dry/sensitive skin, so if my bladder was okay, I would only shower about 3x a week and take wash ups in between), and I'm getting sick and tired of rewashing my laundry every day. I just want to be able to wake up dry and hop out of bed without going through an hour long clean up process before getting my day started.
During the daytime, I'm usually okay, although I feel like either my brain or my kidneys isn't sending/receiving the right signal. Sometimes I'll get extremely sudden urges to go 3-5 times in the space of half an hour. Other times, I won't have any urges for 2-3 hours and only end up making a trip to the bathroom because I realize how much time has passed. I've only had a couple of accidents during the day, and that was usually due to me drinking a lot of water before driving to work (I have a 60+ minute commute) or thinking I could hold it when I really couldn't.
Looking forward to learning from everyone here!
