Bedwetting Support Group

Adam77,
Before my surgery, I was getting myself up so often each night that, in order to keep my bed dry, I was perpetually sleep-deprived. That made driving hazardous, and interfered with many other activities which require alertness. If the choice is between using diapers and sleep deprivation, for safety's sake, please choose diapers.

Paxton,

If it were even remotely a "safety" issue for me (or Fran or any of the others who have posted on this thread, I am sure we would consider that. I don't believe that getting up once, maybe twice a night to use the bathroom qualifies as "sleep deprivation", by any stretch. Annoying sometimes, granted, but it's not like it has such a disastrous impact on my life that I can't drive a car or anything.

Obviously wearing diapers does have the advantage of not having to get up during the night. I think we all realize that. I think the whole point of this thread is that each of us individually has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each particular option (which will be different for each person) and then make the decision we can best live with. For me, it's pretty clear-cut -- I would MUCH rather get up once or twice a night, and wake up dry 95% of the time, than wake up in a wet diaper every morning even if it did mean sleeping through the night. Obviously if those percentages were changed, or the number of times waking up at night, then my weighing of the pros and cons of each option might be different. But... this is where I am now.

I also realize that someone else in my exact same situation might also choose that they would prefer to wear diapers as a precaution so that they didn't have to get up. That's completely fine with me, as it's their body and their choice. All I'm aiming for here is the recognition that for some of us, not using diapers is also a valid choice. I think too often on these forums it is presented (tacitly if not overtly) as though diapers are the only possible or rational choice for any form of bedwetting, and this can sometimes be intimidating (or at least off-putting) to those of us who choose to manage it by other means.

What I'm hoping to do here is send the message that, if you've weighed the pros and cons and choose to manage your bedwetting by some means other than diapers, that's OK, and you don't need to feel bad about yourself or your choice. If that's gotten across to any others here who are in a similar situation to mine, then my intention has been accomplished. For those of you who, by either choice or necessity or both, do use diapers, I intend no offense at all and am simply hoping we can agree to "live and let live". Fair enough? :)

adam77,
If getting up once or twice a night keeps your bed dry and does not interfere with your sleep, wonderful. That was not my case, so diapers became necessary. Incontinence is so variable that no one solution will fit all, and no one solution will continue to fit an individual over time. The goal is to choose the management modality that works, and always be prepared to change it when the situation changes.

I don't, and never used diapers. Well, I have tried to use them, but I seeped right through them and was useless for me. I just use a mattress cover under my sheets, that protects my mattress. And, just get up and clean myself up and wash my covers and change my bedding. It's like a ritual. If I had the choice, I'd have two beds in my bedroom. So when it happens, just change my clothes and crawl in the other bed, and take care of it when I'm not half asleep. But, unfortunately my bedrooms not that big! :)

Oh, and I would wear them...just to bed...if they would hold my urine like they should, but like I said it just seeps right through when I did try it. Be nice not to have to change the covers every night. :(

CasK,
Incontinence management, for me, means that I must wear heavy washable diapers at night, in order to awaken in a dry bed the next morning. Learning where the absorbency needed to be, and how to pin them on in order to keep my bed dry took time and effort, and is not fail-safe, because I still wet through about once or twice a year. Bowel management is more complicated, but it can be learned also.Good luck.