Urinary incontinence after possible DCI II episode - desperate - any hope?

[PirateFoxy]

So a pelvic floor PT will be able to give you way more information, I only a know a cursory amount as it's not my expertise at all. However they should be able to assess based on your history and physical evaluation what's causing your emptying problem, or if you have an emptying problem. (though based on your original post that you're retaining urine that seems likely).

Muscle strength is great and can help you hold it in, but it's not going to help you volitionally empty the bladder if you have a neurogenic bladder weakening the detrusor muscles. Basically the bladder should be default squeeze it all out like a balloon letting out air. After some injuries, such a certain spinal cord injuries you can have a flaccid bladder and it's like trying to get the air out of a deflated balloon if that makes sense. Generally you can use massage techniques to get it out. I'm not sure if it's applicable but you can give it a try, found this video on youtube that may be helpful.

Also muscle tension *in the wrong area* in the pelvis can cause problems, apparently, so in some cases strengthening exercises actually make things worse if they are not paired with stretching so things don't get too tight? I read somewhere or another a while back that there is overall a tendency to only think in terms of strengthening for pelvic floor issues, so the stretching/tension in the wrong areas issue is often overlooked. Might be something to ask the PT about - just if there are any stretches or anything that should be being done in addition to the strengthening activities? Massage might help there also.

(I am not a doctor or a PT, I just used to take my mom to her cancer clinic appointments all the time and I'd get bored and read whatever I could get my hands on. Loads of patient information brochures around in a a cancer clinic.)

 

[Cavetecdiver]

Unfortunetly so far strenghtening exercises didn't help ;( I had in addition mri of lumbar spine and didn't show any anomalies pushing to nerves. I have smorl node which seems common to my age. Also gad vitamin b12 level diagnostics and all proper levels.
Attended yet another evaluation by neurologist and he said everything is fine from neurological Point of view and I should look some where elese - i e. Again urologist.
PT said that in my case stretching will not help either as its used in case someone cannot empty bladder at all. He admitted normally my symptoms are not common in Age below 65 and I am 35.
The only last resort he advised is to buy electro stimulator an try 30 mins every day. I am waiting for it and will try. If there is no any improvement after that probably there is no hope;(

 

[PirateFoxy]

Unfortunetly so far strenghtening exercises didn't help ;( I had in addition mri of lumbar spine and didn't show any anomalies pushing to nerves. I have smorl node which seems common to my age. Also gad vitamin b12 level diagnostics and all proper levels.
Attended yet another evaluation by neurologist and he said everything is fine from neurological Point of view and I should look some where elese - i e. Again urologist.
PT said that in my case stretching will not help either as its used in case someone cannot empty bladder at all. He admitted normally my symptoms are not common in Age below 65 and I am 35.
The only last resort he advised is to buy electro stimulator an try 30 mins every day. I am waiting for it and will try. If there is no any improvement after that probably there is no hope;(

I meant stretching of the general muscles in the pelvic area, not something specific to the bladder. Tension in the wrong places can inhibit things working properly and confuse nerve signals and so on. Like this sort of thing: Pelvic Floor Muscle Tension: When “Just Relax” Is Not Enough (Not saying this is what is going on with you, just grabbed a link that covered the basic concept of why stretching/tension is something to be kept in mind when dealing with pelvic floor related issues.)

 

[Cavetecdiver]

This is only my personal experience and I am not a doctor. I got DCS and pretty much ended up paralyzed from the waist down. Legs were dead, had very little control over bowels and could not urinate at all. Many chamber rides returned some use of my legs and I could wobble (not stable enough to call it walking) again. Bowels improved but urinating required a catheter. I wore a catheter and a collection bag strapped to my leg for a few weeks until I finally opted to self catheterize 4 times a day. over the course of several months I was able to stop retaining urine and eliminate the need to use catheters. Now I began to have minor accidents and was forced to resort to diapers. I was diagnosed with spinal cord damage and told by the time 6 months was up, it would not improve any further. I began "self training" of holding my urine just as long as I possibly could every single time in an effort to strengthen muscles and/or relearn the function. A couple months of this and I was able discontinue the use of diapers. Things still feel different but functions are pretty much back to normal. I know this is TMI and many people with similar experiences are not apt to share so freely but I hope this offers some insight to what determination and work can do to help.

I dropped pills as I found they were doing more damage than improvement. Słów urone Flow was caused by pills but incontenance episodes at same level.
I am already after 4 months of functional rehabilitation which unfortunetly did not give much of an improvement. I started electrostimulation and bought unit to do it every day at home and it have a very slight improvement but its subjective. I feel a few days in a row there is an improvement and there are no leaks but then one day after it - all goes that bad as it was on very begining ;( the bad thing about all that is when it occurs urine smells badly.

I found few people after very severe dcs with similar problems but unfortunetly the ones I met were not able to recover from self catherisation.
What exact exercises gave improvement in your case? Does it make sense to try any surgery?

 

[Cavetecdiver]

This is only my personal experience and I am not a doctor. I got DCS and pretty much ended up paralyzed from the waist down. Legs were dead, had very little control over bowels and could not urinate at all. Many chamber rides returned some use of my legs and I could wobble (not stable enough to call it walking) again. Bowels improved but urinating required a catheter. I wore a catheter and a collection bag strapped to my leg for a few weeks until I finally opted to self catheterize 4 times a day. over the course of several months I was able to stop retaining urine and eliminate the need to use catheters. Now I began to have minor accidents and was forced to resort to diapers. I was diagnosed with spinal cord damage and told by the time 6 months was up, it would not improve any further. I began "self training" of holding my urine just as long as I possibly could every single time in an effort to strengthen muscles and/or relearn the function. A couple months of this and I was able discontinue the use of diapers. Things still feel different but functions are pretty much back to normal. I know this is TMI and many people with similar experiences are not apt to share so freely but I hope this offers some insight to what determination and work can do to help.

I dropped pills as I found they were doing more damage than improvement. Słów urone Flow was caused by pills but incontenance episodes at same level.
I am already after 4 months of functional rehabilitation which unfortunetly did not give much of an improvement. I started electrostimulation and bought unit to do it every day at home and it have a very slight improvement but its subjective. I feel a few days in a row there is an improvement and there are no leaks but then one day after it - all goes that bad as it was on very begining ;( the bad thing about all that is when it occurs urine smells badly.

I found few people after very severe dcs with similar problems but unfortunetly the ones I met were not able to recover from self catherisation.
What exact exercises gave improvement in your case? Does it make sense to try any surgery?

 

[Dsix36]

In my case it was not really exercises, but rather forcing myself to "hold" it whenever I felt the urge to urinate. I would hold it for absolutely as long as possible and even experience leakage in the attempt. The more I did it, the easier it became and finally normalization happened. I still do the hold it thing a lot just as a precaution.