Father has severe urinary frequency at night. Any suggestions?

My husband’s urologist prescribed 50 mg of Myrbetriq. It is a little expensive so I order it from Canada. It was all that worked. He was up and down 6 times per night and this is the only thing that helped him. It comes in 25 mg but he needed the 50 mg. Because he was tired from not getting enough sleep. He had had prostate surgery and had a bag for a month and then wore pull-ups for a month until he was put on the Myrbetriq. It is a wonderful medication. Husband has been on it for a year now. Still gets up once or twice but don’t we all get up once per night sometimes? He was up and down all night before the urologist put him on the right med. Just throwing it out there.

My husband has Parkinson's Disease and an enlarged prostrate. He was getting me up multiple times at night. The Urologist recommended several medications none of which worked. He was up anywhere from hourly to 3 times an hour. I had a friend who was a psychiatrist and he recommended external condom catheters. They are amazing. I put the condom cath on him before bedtime and remove it the next morning. He sleeps through the night and no trying to get him up to use the urinal which is by the bed 8-10 times a night.

My Father is 95 and had prostrate cancer 25 years ago that scarred tissue which has resulted in urinary frequency. He sees a urologist who prescribed Myrbetriq which he says didn't help and he isn't real patient either - guess they have this in common. He is now on an interstitial diet which has helped with the burning. The issue for us became falls at night trying to get to the restroom. He now uses an adult version of Pull-Ups (Kroger Overnight Diapers) and these have been wonderful! He changes them several times a day and wears 2 at night. He only uses them for urination, so he feels he has kept some dignity. He can finally enjoy watching a football game without having to rush to the restroom. During a recent hospitalization he had the condom catheter, but he moved around or pulled it off and it leaked, so not an option for us.

A caution to everyone dealing with pull ups/diapers. PLEASE STOP CALLING THEM DIAPERS!!!! I wear PULL UPS now because in 2002 I had liver cancer and the extensive surgery had consequences, some of them coming many years later.

When it was time for my uncle to start wearing them, he really fought hard against wearing "diapers." He would prefer to wet the bed or fall getting to the bathroom before ever wearing "diapers." The hospice nurse was wonderful and focused on what they were being called. Eventually he gave in to wearing pull ups, but he would never have given in if people had continued calling them diapers.

Now that it is my turn, I feel exactly as he did. Diapers are for babies - pull ups are for adults.

If you change the words you use, it might be a bit easier to convince the person to use them!! It sure made a difference with my uncle, and to be honest, there is one person in my life who insists on calling them diapers, and I bristle every single time.

You also face the problem that if they try to rush to the toilet or commode that they fall. Partly due to needing longer for blood pressure to settle on rising and if like my dad- wouldn’t put a light on - I ended up putting those automatic lights in that stay on during the dark - wasn’t bright enough to disturb him but shed enough light in the room so he could see where furniture was.

I used pull up pants and a liner over the bottom sheet and reassured him I’d rather deal with wet pants and even wet bed rather than another fall so to take his time as the pants would (mostly) contain any leakage. Dad had prostate cancer so needed the toilet several times a night. No medication ever resolved that. Wasn’t prefect and I spent most nights washing sheets at 2am as often dad would try to take the pants off but it wasn’t dad’s fault so I wouldn’t grumble as I knew how frustrating and tiring it was for him too.

My mother had the same issues with urinary frequency. Her urologist took her off of all medications and told us to put her on powdered D-Mannose, found in health food stores. It worked for her. It’s worth a try.

I had to deal with the same problem at the age of 91. 15 times a night was typical.

As far as I know, you have two choices - put up with it or have surgery to eliminate the enlarged prostate problem. I had the surgery and get up once a night at the most.

Good luck.