Help with incontinence?

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Elkhorn3

Member
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
23
Reason
CALS
Diagnosis
05/2020
Country
US
State
MT
City
Helena
Hi Mighty CALS! My husband, on his swift and devastating trajectory through ALS and FTD, has suddenly become unable to hold his pee (so far it's just pee, but the other is coming surely). I bought a pack of Depends just in time yesterday, after a few accidents. Awoke this morning to puddles of pee on the bathroom floor & hallway rug. He travels about the house on a walker, so I expect him to be mobile for a while yet.

He can't talk and the FTD is advanced enough he's not able to communicate when he has to go. But I think his loss of muscle/nerve control doesn't give him any warning anyway.

Looking for advice about how to keep the house, carpets, and him clean (& me sane) in this in-between time after incontinence sets in and before he's completely bedridden.

Thanks.
 
I'm so sorry, Elkhorn. Some ideas off the top:

Use a condom catheter if he will keep it on
Proactively ask him to go at regular intervals, if he can comply with that, in an easy way like using a urinal.
Keep urinals around the house and try to help him acquire the habit of pointing to one when needed.
Use large absorbent pads in bed
There are various absorbencies/styles of Depends, and maybe better brands -- I would check reviews for his particular situation.

I am sure others will have better ideas...hang in there.

--Laurie
 
Laurie has some great advice. I'll add - wash urine from clothing as soon as possible in COLD water. Use Borax, as well as your detergent, to reduce the odour. Since he can still stand, use pull-up style diapers or pads to make things easier to change. I find Tena Ultimate Overnight pads to be the most absorbent, if you want to go the pad route. Aim to have him go every 3 to 4 hrs. Use washable pads on furniture as well as the bed.
 
With his FTD he doesn't comprehend cooperating on use of a condom cath. He just pulls it off when he's done, and it spills on the bedroom carpet.
He wakes every 60-90 minutes at night to stand up and pee into a urinal. As soon as I get his pad pulled down I'd better be there with the urinal in the right spot or else! I clean our bedroom carpet every day. (Yes, exhausting) I guess a big bed pad on the rug by the bed is a great idea there!
If it were just ALS he would do everything to maintain his dignity. But FTD robs you even of that.
We started hospice this week, and the hospice nurse just said, "Stop feeding him so much." (He's on a peg tube) wth????
 
Maybe a drug for urinary urgency/overactive bladder would help? Ask his doctor about Oxybutynin or something similar. ALS is the worst. FTD makes it suck even more.
 
My husband had Alzheimer's, and was in a memory care facility for the last months of his life. Many of the residents, including my husband, had issues finding the toilets or remembering how to use them. So, they had him in Depends as well as a one piece suit that zipped up the back - so he was not able to get it off by himself. It was basically a pair of sweat pants on the bottom and a T-shirt on top, sewed together at the waist. We would take him to the bathroom often, And it was very easy for us to get the suit unzipped and pulled down for him. If he did have an accident, it was contained in the Depends.

You can get them mail order from a company called Buck & Buck.
 
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