Living with Urinary Incontinence

Since I had my second child I have had mild stress urinary incontinence. I couldn’t jump on a trampoline anymore but it was only a small bother. Then as I got much older it became worse. I leaked when I coughed or laughed too hard, etc. I was seeing a urologist for another problem of mine, bladder infections. Anyways he said he could fix that incontinence problem of mine. I believed him.

About 3 years ago I had my first sling operation. This one was called a TVT sling. It did not improve the incontinence at all but I was left with pain whenever I tried to sit down. I could stand and I could lie down without pain but travelling in a car, sitting on a ferry, all of these were painful. The urologist said this had never happened before and he did many tests to try and find out the problem. Finally I had had enough after 7 months of pain. I said ” Take the sling out. It doesn’t work anyways.” Well it was taken out and now the pain was gone BUT I went from being mildly incontinent to severe incontinence. I found out later the pain was from a nerve that got pinched in the first sling procedure The urologist I see now says that I am type 3 incontinent. That means I can go to the bathroom and within a couple of minutes be wet again. Walking, sitting , lifting can cause me to leak.

Anyways I saw a gynegologist next and tried a pessary. I didn’t want to try another sling yet. The pessary took some time to find one that worked and it helped. I was about 80 % better. Then my body rejected the pessary. I got quite sick. So I saw another urologist He said he could fix me. I had a TOT sling put in, no change. I was still very incontinent. Then he said we could try a zuidex injection. This was given with only local freezing cream. It doesn’t take the pain away. A long metal rod is inserted into your urethra and four injections are given into your urethra walls to try and bulk up the urethra so it will retain the urine. By that night I had a urine infection. Within a few days, even though I was on antibiotics I had a kidney infection. Finally after I was better the verdict was in. I was even more incontinent. Now I am going to try a SPARC sling under spinal anesthestic. I will be awake and he will get me to cough so he can tighten it enough. I sure hope this works because I am going through 7 to 10 pads a day and it affects what I do physically. I avoid too much exertion because I will be wet.