Overnight bladder nightmare. Any recommendations?

My mom’s doc suggested meds but mom doesn’t want to try the meds.

Helen323. I had the same issue with all the laundry in the morning with my dad. I ordered these pads from Amazon. RMS Ultra Soft 4-Layer Washable and Reusable Incontinence Bed Underpads, 34"X36" by RMS Royal Medical Solutions, Inc. I put 3 liners/guards & diapers/briefs or both(if lots of liquid b4 bed). Also, use disposal pads right under him. Normally, if the the guards on in the "right place", only the disposal pads are wet.

Have you tried the washable cloth protectors? I have worked with clients who wake up soaked, despite being changed two to three hours prior!
The best solution is extra bed pads and then layering the diaper with a poise pad. Real tip: cut a slit through the poise pad(s) prior to sticking to the diaper.. this helps the urine actually seep through to diaper.

have you tried covidien pads?

My wife Christy sleeps naked on washable 4 x 4 cotton face bedpad with cotton sheet cover.
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.

The 'bag' is just that; a tube coming out of the bladder and connects to the bag. It's got some kind of circuitous pattern in it, which is supposed to make the urine collection slow down a little. The bag is then strapped to the leg (thigh) with Velcro straps, or as I said, mother drapes it over her walker, or if she's being super lazy--just lets the bag drag along behind her. The 2ng bag, the night one holds more urine, but isn't strapped to her, just lays on the bed, or drapes off the side of the bed.

It's not a pleasant thing to look at, and mother's smell to high heaven. They are 'tough' but not made for years of wear. IF mother could bleach hers and really get it clean, that's one thing. As it is, she just empties it the best she can and swipes at the tube where it connects to the catheter with the wash rag she uses on her face. Thinks by rinsing that out she's gotten all the germs. Hence, non stop UTI's.

We'll be somewhere, and suddenly, her bag will overflow--which means the collector bag is full AND she also has between 4-6 cups of urine in her depends and pads. Huge mess.

She's impossible to talk to about this--she's aware, but too tired to change out bags, pads and underwear. She tends to just change and put another quilt or blanket on her recliner after she sprays the dickens out of the chair.

She FIGHTS me on any kind of cleaning--I am not even allowed to take her bathroom trash out. And it's packed to the gills with sopping wet depends and pads.

Oddly enough, nighttime is not a problem. She has on the super size cath bag, the super size depends and sleeps on 4-5 chucks. She does leak, but it's all in one place.

Sett a repeat timer and offer to walk her to the bathroom...or you need to check the bag every 20 min. Sounds like a hassle but major study showed 70-90% decrease in incontinence at NH. Note...asking if they want or need to go was not effective. The workers & Grad Students during the study, kindly offered to assist patients in walking to the restroom.
I had a Prof involved in the study...so the subtle but directing assistance for action on a consistent basis worked! In your case, go to BR or BA to check bag position/secure/adjust for comfort.... don't say check if full.
When/if you have help/respite..be sure they do the same. Soon patients stop noticing how frequently they are being offered assistance...enjoy positive attention.
This was done during waking hours and room checks at night. I know you need to sleep...but the pattern of prompts all day long rewires the brain, decreased incontinence and accidents during sleep!

The pads that I found worked the best were by Conni
Found them on Costco website. The pads are large and hold something like 80 fluid ounces.
The company also has liners for underwear as well as other products. conniglobal.com and the particular pad that I got is
Order No CCD-085095-25-1
I just checked their website and I know I did not pay what they are showing and Costco does not seem to have the product listed.

Is it possible to change the mattress to a hospital mattress. They are more washable than a regular mattress.
There are also waterproof mattress pads. The problem I found with those is...They are hot...When they have to be washed they take forever to dry (not supposed to dry them in the dryer) so you need at least 2... They crinkle when you turn in bed.

Before I found the Conni pads of the things I did put on the bed for my Husband I got lengths of Terry Cloth Toweling (happened to find it at a garage sale) and I would double that up and it was absorbent so even though he would leak through I did not end up with a puddle on the floor. But there were times no matter what I did I would end up with puddles. (I am talking not a little puddle but PUDDLE!)

Buy some chucks. Actually they are call reusable bed pads or something like that. Put them on top of the sheets or a chair she is sitting in etc and the bed and sheets wont get dirty where you have to wash them. They use them in ot of hospitals and they're waterproof. Also get a waterproof mattress pad and put that on the mattress pad so at least the mattress wont get soiled. You said you had bed liner pads but the chucks really do work.. As far as a product that works I really dont think you are going to find one. We did that for a long time with my mother and then ended up hiring someone to come in for 2 hours that would wash everything, remake the bed and give her a shower. Depending on the price of a caregiver where you live it might be worth it even if you dont did it a few days a week

Maybe talk to her urologist and find out if she needs medication to control urine flow. Sometimes they will prescribe vesicare for a few weeks to see if that works, although generally they don't like to do that for elderly. Also, if they do prescribe, they usually give free samples.

I found the Tranquility brand Night Time works best for my husband who is night time incontinent. However, some nights, at least once a week, he gets up and pulls them down and pees on the floor in his bedroom or down the hall (as he did this morning), leaving the diaper completely dry. Anybody got a solution for this? Making me crazy! Hate to open my bedroom door in the morning, afraid of what I'll find on the other side. Don't dare go barefoot anywhere in the house! :>(

As per the permanent catheter---

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.

Hi Need Help. I buy CVS brand depends and CVS overnight protection pads. The long ones with one end wider than the other. I place the wide end by her butt. I use a razor blade to score the pad before I place it in the depends. Before I take the paper strip off the back of pad, I make three cuts in it enough to go through the paper strip and cut through the plastic part of pad until you reach the cottony part. I hope I’m explaining clearly. If not, let me know. Good luck.

I recently got mom a full encasement "waterproof" mattress cover and 2 more fitted mattress covers (meant for bed wetters) as well as 2 extra large and absorbent reusable pads. She has the encasement cover on then a fitted mattress cover, pad, another mattress cover and pad and then sheets a sheet and she has several other older smaller pads. The idea being that if she goes through her nighttime Depends with an extra exorbitant Poise pad (is supposed to be scored) or neglects to put that on and falls asleep with just the regular daytime Depends on she can simply pull off the first layer pad/cover and the set below will already be on the bed dry and clean. She get's at least 3 nights of leaking this way before having to remake the bed and often can just replace the top pad when fully armed for bed. I got them all on Amazon and with some research didn't spend an exorbitant amount of money. The soiled pad and cover just get pre-washed and soaked in white vinegar until the last set is on the bed and then it all gets washed.

Since my Dad is not making in time to use the bathroom, We have a potty chair in his room, plus he wears depends and he has a tarp on top of his sheets. It's been helping him and saving mom lots of laundry time. So maybe you want to give that a thought.

Here's what I order on Amazon for my mother's nighttime incontinence:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GYZNDY8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are disposable chucks which absorb A LOT of urine. When combined with the Depends and the doubler, the bedding seems to stay dry MOST of the time.

Best of luck!

Hi Helen. Oh, have been there. I found a tip a few months ago on this site. I too was using a pad and depends together for my mom and bed was soaken most mornings. It was a day of celebration when the bed was dry on a rare occasion. The tip was to score the back of the pad so that once filled with urine, additional urine would flow through the pad now that you scored through the plastic backing and into the depends. It works fantastic for my mom. Most days are dry and doing the celebratory dance more often, good luck to you. I hope this helps.

My Lord, too much laundry! I do a lot of laundry too but it’s not as much as that.

I found that Sam's club brand is the best for my dad.

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.

My mother finally had to have a permanent catheter installed (sounds like she was getting new brake pads--'installed') after her supra pubic cath leaked badly.

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.

Peeped mats are advertised on this site. Look at the ads.😉

Just an idea, but don’t offer any fluids (4hrs or so) a few hours before she goes to sleep which may work to decrease the amount of urine she passes during the night.

I am surprised she wasn't catherized. Sometimes after surgery the person cannot "hold" it until the muscles strength back up.

Here is a link to the peapodmats.
peapodMats.com

My answer is similar to cwille’s thinking. I am not sure of a particular product. I have tried several too. No magic answer.

One thing you could try though is calling a NH and see what they use. They take care of many people and may know of better products than the general public has used. Worth a shot.

Have you looked at the online continence care sites? There is such an enormous range of products that I'd be surprised if you can't find something with the fit and absorbency you need. The range available in stores is nothing like as extensive; plus they don't sell in bulk so much.

But however good the product there's no getting away from a lot of extra laundry, alas. If you've got an old-fashioned laundry near you that will collect and deliver, I think you'll find them worth their money.

Just re-reading - overnight pads in addition to a diaper? Do make sure that they're not interfering with each other so that neither works properly. You should be able to check their capacity on the packaging, and if they're not holding as much as they should it may be something like that.

Generally people on the forum with problems like yours are using products that aren't easily available unless purchased on line or from specialty suppliers, if you google "free incontinence underwear" you will find a whole lot of companies that will send samples of their products to try. In the mean time you might find that the tab style brief are more absorbent that pull ups.

I used the peepodmats. three feet by five feet. It was enough for us. Still I had to do the laundry up to three times a day. But I did not have to strip the bed, only the mats.