@Dcny Hello! I recommend changing your diaper after each wetting. If you’re unable to do so, change a lot more frequently, like once per hour minimum, rather than dragging it out to once every four hours.
I also recommend washing any clothes with urine on them, twice, with an extra soak period to make sure smells get out of clothes. Additionally, regularly clean every surface in your life that may have urine on it from your clothes touching it, like the couch, the seat in your car, your bathmat once per week if you dribble on that when you get out of the shower, the chair you sit in to eat, etc. If you’re a bed wetter make sure you wash your sheets at least once per week. I wash mine after every accident, but even if I don’t have an accident, I still wash mine once a week just because my sweaty diapers have been close to them.
I highly recommend trying Calmoseptine, which is a heavy-duty diaper cream known for being a great reducer of bacteria and fungi in your creases. Bacteria and fungi create odor, but let’s all be honest: the smell of the nitrogen in urine simply just stinks!
Calmoseptine is available on Amazon and at most big box stores with a pharmacy. Be aware that you might have to ask the staff to get it for you because they keep it behind the counter to deter potential thieves who steal it to use on their baby’s diaper area. My heart goes out to folks struggling that bad; it could happen to any one of us. Anyway, Calmoseptine works for at least hh48 hours. It stinks like a medicine cabinet might, but it’s so worth it to avoid rashes and odors.
There is also a prescription anti-fungal powder your doctor can prescribe for you called “Nystatin.” It’s basically amped up baby powder.
Last year when I had a huge rash for months (from a severe yeast infection I got after taking antibiotics for ear infections), my dermatologist recommended the following regimen to me, and it’s what I do to prevent rashes or odor: 1. Apply Calmoseptine in the entire leg crease. Rub it in to make sure it gets in the cracks. It stinks but the next step helps get rid of it. 2. Apply Nystatin using a cotton ball or cotton pad. Push it into the Calmoseptine and rub it around so they bond. This keeps the powder next to your skin for longer throughout the day by having it bonded with a sturdy cream. 3. Apply dry (not roll-on) deodorant in your creases and your cracks. That should do A LOT to help. I’ve never used Lume, just Ban, but you can trust what folks recommend here say, so I think trying Lume sounds great. Note to self: try Lume
I haven’t tried the method of drinking adequately because I really need to restrict my fluid intake. Most of the time my urine stays close to clear even though I don’t drink as much water as I used to. I think it’s definitely worth trying the suggestion of @Hbic60. His method seems very healthy and simple.
I totally agree with what the people above recommended: anyone with incontinence must shave to reduce odor and mess. I also totally agree with using deodorant in your creases - all of them, anywhere in your body.
As for your significant other, perhaps you can keep some clean clothes (that haven’t been peed in yet) available at all times when you’re with him/her. Change and clean up, maybe shower, every time before you see him/her. Wear a high-quality, strong, handsome cologne or a bright, seductive perfume to help mask the urine smell. Go shopping for that cologne or perfume together with your significant other so you can be sure they’ll like the scent, too. A high quality scent is worth investing in, if you can afford it. Think Macy’s or Dillard’s, not Walmart or Kohl’s.
Prior to being intimate with a significant other, make sure you’ve adequately washed off any urine residue, deodorant, creams, and powders. Nobody wants to taste any of those things! And I don’t mean fake-clean with those puny little wipes that don’t cut it, but with a dynamic washcloth, hot water, and soap. Antibacterial soap works best as long as you don’t get it directly in your private entrances. Maybe a shower before each intimate encounter is in order. I know it’s not spontaneous and that’s an adjustment for most, but better to be clean than stinky. No lover wants to encounter the smells or tastes of urine, cream, powder, or deodorant in intimate moments.
You can test this yourself by rubbing deodorant on your arm, letting it dry and soak in, then licking it. D-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g! Some perfumes and colognes also taste gross. You can do the same test on your arm before you buy the bottle: go to a department store to shop for a bottle. Spray some of the one you like best on your arm - a typical test that stores are fine with and used to. Let the scent dry. Go back to your car and kiss/lick your arm to make sure the scent doesn’t taste like poison. 99% of the time, perfume and cologne will not be a taste problem. But for the other 1%, no partner kissing you wants to come across a foul chemical taste. One time I had a guy point out that my skin (my perfume on my skin) tasted like a chemical poison. I did the arm test and it really was a terrible chemical taste. The perfume was Clinique “Happy” - not a particularly high quality, expensive perfume, but not cheap, either.
The embarrassing thing is that I was actually on my second bottle of it in life and I had worn it on many dates prior! I felt bad for the guys who kissed my skin where I had applied that perfume. Oh well, live and learn. Now I test every perfume like that before I buy it. So far I’ve only found the one I mentioned earlier that was bad. And I have never found a male cologne to taste gross. Man, I love cologne so much. I wish more men would wear it. Somehow it’s gone out of fashion, at least where I live.
You also might want to experiment with different diapers that are better at controlling ofor. I’m sure some people here can recommend diapers that are the best at controlling odor. The NorthShore MegaMax tabbed diaper seems to be the favorite tabbed diaper of most people here who need to wear tabbed diapers. My Depends “overnight relief” pull-ups don’t stink, even when full, unless I didn’t take them out to the garbage that day, but it sounds like they might not offer adequate absorption for you.
Have you tried Botox injections in your bladder? The procedure is covered by health insurance. The best candidates for it are people who have Neurogenic Bladder like you and I do. Botox almost takes my bladder back to normal. So if you haven’t talked to your doctor about Botox before, nor tried it, I would talk to them about it to get more information if you want. Just think how great it would be to have far fewer leaks - maybe even none - and to not even have an odor problem much at all! Botox could help you get there. If you’re female, the injections hurt like hell, but they’re less painful for men according to reports posted here by men. The temporary pain is absolutely worth the gain of peeing a normal quantity and regaining some control for the next 1-6 months following a set of injections. Botox has never caused any problems for me but for some people, they find it hard to completely empty their bladders for the first couple of weeks after Botox. Other than that, there are no side effects - unlike the OAB pills, which have horrible side effects and don’t even work.
I hope that one, or several, of our suggestions can help you improve your situation as desired. Please let us know what ends up helping you. Be patient as you experiment; it’s taken most of us years to figure out our pee solutions and routines. And then just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, something will change and you’ll have to adjust a part of your routine all over again. So the experiment is ongoing, just like everything else in life!
