Stomach bugs with MS bladder/bowel issues

Stomach bugs with MS bladder/bowel issues

Ok warning I’m going graphic here because I need to be honest and there is no other way. I have bladder and bowel control issues. For my bladder I take Toviaz which helps me not have accidents but when I have to go I have a very short window of time to make it to a bathroom. Without this medicine I have NO window of time.

My bowels are completely different. I can’t take anything and have no control over the muscles in that region. When I have to go, I have to go. I have learned how to eat and i take a natural vitamin that has really made a difference helping me be somewhat regular called organic Triphala. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PGCUKO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003PGCUKO&linkCode=as2&tag=multipleex-20&linkId=7ded5b7f01370ce2aac810d405014d56 This helps but the problem still stands that when I have to go, I have to go. I have no control over the area to “hold it in”. If I’m not near a bathroom, it is very likely I can have an accident and I have unfortunately had many more than I’d like to admit to.

You can imagine what happens when diarrhea hits and you have no control. Making to the bathroom is almost impossible. Yesterday was such that day. I was fortunate having only two accidents, yet each one still upsets me just the same.

I think both the bladder and bowel accidents are the hardest part of my MS. They hit me on a psychological level. I know it’s part of my disease, I know it isn’t my fault. Yet at the age of 47 I have to wear pads every time I leave the house just in case. It is that one part of the MS that is embarrassing to me that I find so difficult to deal with.

For the first time in over a year and a half, my aid had to help clean up a bowel accident and I was mortified. She was so understanding. I know I can’t control it, I know it’s my disease. I know I shouldn’t take it personally. Yet I’m so embarrassed every time I have an accident especially a bowel one. It’s is the hardest part of MS for me.

4 thoughts on “Stomach bugs with MS bladder/bowel issues

  1. Thanks for sharing and addressing this very difficult subject. I too have bowel urgency and you are correct I better be near a bathroom or I will, and have had many accidents. For me the immediate need always seems to happen when i am driving and I too often don’t make it into the house before all Hell breaks loose 🙁
    I started having this issue years before I was diagnosed with MS, the urgency not the accidents. I believe now this was an early sign that I had MS.

    1. I had the accidents before I worked up the nerve to tell my doctor the embarrassing symptoms. They started early into my MS. I can still have both hesitancy and urgency crazy!!! The bowel urgency has been this way for many many years.
      This is a tough topic but a very real one for many of us. I try to discuss so others know it’s ok.

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