Can ANYONE please recommend a good overnight bladder protection product or process. My Mom is 85 and recently had bladder surgery, she sleeps thru the night and I have her on overnight pads in addition to a diaper coverups to protect clothing, bed liner pads and she goes thru all of them. I have tried Walgreens, Walmart, Jewel, Tena brands and nothing seems to work so I have to wash her clothes in addition to the liner and sheets every morning. There HAS to be a product out there to help for overnight sleep and bladder protection?
Thank you for listening. This is really annoying to do on a daily basis.
Mother has always had bladder issues. Had Big babies, I guess caused some pelvic floor damage. She likely never did Kegels like we were taught (ah, I am doing them NOW :) which are a great help. She's had several surgeries to correct the pelvic floor and to help with bladder leakage and nothing helped. I think partially b/c the skills to do this just weren't as good as nowadays.
Finally, the installed a supra-pubic cath (which, BTW looks absolutely gruesome and actually hurt her as it tugged and the cath bag is strapped to her leg. She has constant UTI's--has as long as I can remember. with the supra pubic (the cath is surgically inserted in the bladder with a tube coming out--stitched into place and must be maintained very carefully!) This ceased to keep the leaking at bay so she opted for the permanent one. It's 100xs worse looking than the outer one. And she STILL leaks. And, b/c she doesn't feel the urge to urinate, she doesn't check the cath bag and it fills up pretty quickly, and will leak, a lot, really fast. The bag is supposed to be strapped to her leg, but a lot of the time she just drapes it over her walker. Or drags it behind her.
She also wears a 'light' depends, and a couple of poise pads, but she can soak those in a minute if the bag is full. Also, not changing often enough adds to the UTI's...it's a constant battle.
She could use the nighttime cath bag which is about double in capacity, but is shows under her clothes and she's embarrassed.
Recently she's had some bowel incontinence, which she doesn't know I am aware of. Ugh.
All this cleaning and re-arranging of clothing makes her so tired, she just..doesn't. So the cath bags are not cleaned properly, the tubes are supposed to be sterilized and hers are lying on the bathroom floor.
She never tried plain thicker Depends with a pad in it, she says she's fine with the cath bags, but the smell it abhorrent and I can't think it's in any way comfortable. Mostly, I think she's being cheap. Money spent on bladder leakage control is money she can't spend at BINGO.
I really, really don't want to get old.
He could soak a full size bed edge to edge.
These have the latest greatest technology, I did the research and I think they are the best. Comfortable and absorbent. Best price as well.
I feel for you, I used to cry because I was so tired and then had 5 more loads of laundry for the day. Overwhelming!
Hugs, you will find a solution.
Has for years. Disposal briefs, diapers, are for our convenience and cause UTIs.
Sleepwear adds to the inconvenience and can be restrictive.
Yes, it can be a lot of laundry, but I have a happy, healthy wife.
UTIs are more expensive, troublesome, not fair caused by our inconvenience.
I am old, painful arms and shoulders, but I am always willing to roll Christy out of bed, pull bedding and underpads, replace bedding, shower Christy, tuck her back into a clean bed and throw the soiled bedding in the washer. Sleepwear would add to the task. Tucking arms into sleeves is a chore.
It is easy to throw the fresh 4 x 4 pad and flat sheet onto the mattress. Fitted sheets are tedious.
I wondered if this could be done. A friend told me that she tried to cut a long length poise pads to a shorter size and it didn’t work, fell apart. But please explain what you mean by scoring it? Where exactly did you cut it and how much and how deep of a cut, because I have wanted to try this. It does seem like it would then be double protection. Thanks for sharing this solution.
It was not to be "until she heals or gets stronger" it's PERMANENT. I've had one cath my whole life that I recall (had 5 C-sections, so they put them in and took them out before I was not numb) The one that was left in for 24 hours was one of the most awful feeling things I ever experienced and I had just gone through 48 hours of hard labor and an emergency C-section--yet it was that darn catheter I couldn't stand!
I don't know how mom lives with it!
On top of that, she wears a thin depends type thing in the day and also a couple of poise pads---she absolutely soaks everything. The nighttime cath bag holds about 3 cups, the nighttime depends holds almost 4 cups and each poise pad holds about a cup a piece. Yet she still manages to pee the bed many nights.
She makes her own bed, and I know that she has to have brother strip the sheets to the mattress frequently. He works as am EMT and I know he gets products to protect the bed that we can't get. Hospital grade, I guess.
Considering mother drinks less than 32 oz of fluid a day--I don't KNOW where all this liquid is coming from!
She has just recently become bowel incontinent. A whole new issue. She lives in an apt attached to brother's home, but the smell of old urine has permeated their entire house. SIL said she needs to get a new washer and dryer as mother has essentially ruined the ones she has, due to being skimpy with the soap and not doing extra rinses with vinegar or things that help remove the urine scent.
a quick note on your stinky smell issue, I LOVE Febreeze products, I spray most of Mom's sheets/towels, clothes and it helps ALOT in addition I add baking soda and vinegar into the wash to kill the smell, hope that helps you.
I had no idea they could put in a perm cath? we are not at that level yet.
Happy Mothers day to you and your Mom. God Bless you for caring for her. It is quite a life changing situation.
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