Urinary Incontinence Support Group

Hi everybody – I’m new to this forum and very new to urinary incontinence. I am a 49 year old male, competitive powerlifter, and consider myself to be in excellent physical condition.
My story: I walked into a robbery attempt at my work (I left a set of keys that I needed – so it was after hours). When I got there, I had to “go” really bad so I went into the bathroom located at the back of the building. I didn’t see anyone, or anything out of place. 10 or so seconds into “going” two of four men kicked the door open to the small bathroom and commenced beating on me mid-stream. One of them hit me across the face with a semi-automatic pistol – I believe the only reason they didn’t shoot me was because of the close proximity of all of the bodies in one small room. I was able to disable one of the attackers – and when the other one saw what was happening, he stabbed me in the shoulder. The other two cowards also saw what was happening and one ran off while the other picked the unconscious guy up on his shoulder. I attempted to chase the group but tried to hurdle a chair with my pants around my thighs (sweats) was not a good idea. All four perpetrators escaped (police feel they have the identity of one – that is in a coma in the hospital). I don’t remember any of this – it all came from a police report from the night of the incident. I went to the hospital and they found a broken left orbit, broken nose, concussion, and of course, a stab wound to the shoulder. MRI/CAT came back clean for bleeds.
The week following the incident I was said to be irritable, out of sorts, and I would just stare off in the middle of a conversation. Two weeks to the day of the incident, my son and wife found me on the kitchen floor at 2am in a full grand mal seizure. I was transported to the hospital where I was given Ativan to stop the seizures (which helped), morphine for the pain, lorazepam for anxiety, and some type of muscle relaxer. I was in and out of consciousness for three days – before they moved me to the psych ward. Apparently I was flashing back and forth between the attack in the bathroom and the time I spent in central/south America with the military. My wife told me I voided my bladder a couple of times during those three days (in the bed). I was diagnosed with post-concussive disorder along with PTSD.
Every day is a new day with me, I have three to four petite mal seizures per day where I void my bladder, and I also have leakage throughout the day and night (it is worse during seizures though). It has gotten to a point where the maximum absorbency Depends leak and I have resorted to wearing plastic pants over the top of them. This has helped greatly; it keeps the bed (and my wife) dry during the night, and is little consequence to pay for still being alive.
I have went to a normal treating doctor for my referrals – she noticed that my reflexes and pupil dilation on my right side is fine, but my left side shows 95% lethargy (including pupil dilation). Motor functions are okay on both sides, except balance. I can’t stand on my left leg without the room spinning (vertigo). I have bad nightmares and even some “issues” during the day when I am awake. I take Quetiapine for the nightmares and for anxiety. I am wondering if any of you have taken this medication before and have developed urinary incontinence (my part in the “diagnose yourself” era).
The treating doctor feels that it’s (the incontenence) a combination of my meds and whatever is causing the seizures and my other problems (she has referred me to another neurologist for a new EEG). I lost about 4 to 4.5 weeks of my memory, I have lost my job, my insurance is denying my claim, my son blew a head gasket on his Jeep, I struggle to get some words out of my mouth (very frustrating – kind of like stuttering – I know what the word is – I just can’t get it out of my mouth), and my wife’s passenger side window stopped working.
I got the window fixed, I am working on the boys’ Jeep, and I am going to see a psychologist on Monday on our dime. The cool thing about all of this – it brought a family closer together that was drifting apart and going separate ways. We always believed in God – but now we walk it as well. The night I went in with the grand mal seizure, my wife told me that I said “it might just have been easier to not walk out of that bathroom”. Now I am so thankful I did – my wife and son have been so cool about all of my situations and I am so thankful to be alive – regardless of whether I have to wear diapers or stutter when I talk. My family loves me – and I know God does too – he has made me unique.
I know I have written a lot – but so many of you have so many problems that it makes mine look like a pea compared to a mountain. Some of you have had surgery after surgery on spinal nerves, and have diseases that I don’t even know if I could cope with. My hat is off to you, and my prayers go out to you – you are a strong group of people – which is why I joined here.
Thanks for listening – post if you know of anyone (or have yourself) experienced this type of issue – either with the meds or the injury.
Thanks so much for listening.
mike
Posted on 05/20/12, 03:53 am