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Up until recently she was compliant when the urologist cleaned the pessary which involves a trip to the urologist every three months, extracting the pessary from the vaginal canal, then reinserting the pessary.
We tried a small amount of Trazadone before the pessary cleaning as prescribed by the doctor; however, this procedure is becoming increasingly difficult for her. She was in severe pain whenever she sat down that we believed the pessary helped. She now has intermittent pain when she sits down but the pain goes away.
It's a good thing her kidneys are working well.
Do not restrict fluids - her body is working.
Tapering fluids before bedtime may help reduce sleep interruptions.
You might want to discuss what "CarolPeaches" says below.
A trip to her PC and maybe referral to a urologist is a good idea as well though, sometimes there are physical reasons for this that can be helped and should be and sometimes suggestions from her medical team are easier to put into affect than suggestions from a family member who can’t personally relate to the problem, even when it causes them problems the LO can no longer relate to!
I read about the botox but this also comes with chances of it working so well, they are not able to pee at all for a while, and can need a catheter until it wears off a little. And botox isn't permanent. It has to be done regularly. I just couldn't see making mom go through that when she doesn't understand it at all.
I set a timer every two hours at night to wake up and make her pee. During the day I do the same. This is a big problem for me too as I'm not getting any sleep and doing multiple loads of laundry anyway.
I wish you luck, it's hard to deal with. I'm working on getting my mom in memory care as it's all becoming too hard for me to do.
As his dementia has progressed, he has gotten to the point of rarely going to the bathroom to urinate and instead I just change his Depends multiple times a day (you figure out the schedule). I have found that at this point changing the Depends is easier than him going to the bathroom because he no longer knows how to properly use the toilet (as an example we had a recent day when he wanted to use the toilet and urinated on his pants, shirt, socks, the wall, and the floor- In essence he peed on everything but the toilet).
In summary, urinary (and eventually bowel) incontinence has been part of my father’s dementia and it seems that it is common to other dementia patients.
I can only guess that if your wife has dementia that she is no longer continent. I'm hoping you have her in Depends by now and are even putting a Kotex type pad in them to help soak up more of her pee.
Often times when a loved one gets to the point of being incontinent the family makes the decision to place them in the appropriate facility, which in your wife's case would more than likely be a memory care facility.
I wish you well.
As dementia advances, so do urinary incontinence issues in general, as a rule. My mother was incontinent way before she was ever even diagnosed with dementia, and by the third year, wearing Depends 24/7 and soaking the bed linens every night in Memory Care. It is what it is, I guess.
Best of luck to both of you dealing with all the issues that go along with dementia.