Bladder and bowel issues with MS

[Jane E Harmon]

I went—what a way to begin a comment about this topic! Anyway, I went from many years of urgency and frequency to the point that rushing became impossible. While my bladder still holds urine and voids whenever it’s ready I need constant protection. That includes a pull-up with a booster pad. When I am in bed, and soon when I am out in the community, the BARD PureWick female external catheter system is a lifesaver. UTIs may be a thing of my past; at least I can hope.

BARD only sells their PureWick products to the public for cash. But I have recently found a company, RA Fischer, that can get everything except the base with the battery included paid for through traditional Medicare. The form even allows your provider to check Temporary or Lifelong boxes, and order 30 monthly catheters (for overnight use) or 60 catheters (for around-the-clock use.

BARD now has designed a PureWick catheter system for men. What this expensive product has to compete with the condom catheter and gravity that men have had for more than half a century, I would like to know, so jump in to the conversation if you’ve had experience with both.

I use the PureWick system with the battery included so I’m working to get a ventilator tray on the back of my power chair. It will allow me to use the PureWick on the go—Yikes! Another pee pun! Or maybe I’m too hypersensitive to them. Normally, public restrooms just don’t work for me so I just don’t drink before or during outings.

When it comes to voluntarily emptying my bladder, just thinking about it, or even thinking ‘Don’t do it!’ sometimes helps, as does coughing, but raising or lowering the head of my homecare hospital bed works best of all. Of course, my bladder doesn’t really get empty but it prevents any trickling before I can get my underwear back in place.

As for my bowel habits, I have no control, either. MíraLax (polyethylene glycol 3550) daily is what currently works. In my recent hospital stays, the nursing staff has now kept a sturdy UltraSorb disposable pad under me. When my bowels begin to move, I roll onto my left side. They can clean me up in a jiffy. It works so well that my attendants and I are doing the same at home. No one has begged to go back to cleaning out the bedpan yet!

[Benjamin Hofmeister]

😆 take it easy with the pee puns. I’m certainly not too mature to laugh at them, but when my bladder is full, laughter is not the best medicine.

I’ve heard of the pure Wick system for men but haven’t tried it. I know a couple guys who tried condom catheters in the past with mixed results. There seemed to be a problem with getting it tight enough not to leak, but not too tight for comfort. I get the majority of my care through the Veterans Affairs Hospital and I’ll have to see if they will supply that when the time comes.

Right now, I can still use a bedside urinal and even carry one in the car, but as I’m losing dexterity in my hands, this option probably won’t last forever.

Thank you so much for sharing! I read an interview with a veteran where someone asked him why vets don’t like to discuss their time in the war. He told the interviewer that it’s not that they mind, they just mainly wanted to discuss it with other veterans. He went on to compare it to asking someone at a retirement home if they had ever wet themselves. They may have. They may not even be ashamed, or embarrassed, but they probably only want to talk about it with others who had wet themselves too.

Thanks for being the MS vet willing to talk about it.