Trap #1: Failing to double-check your
prescription. Though drug-dispensing mistakes are rare, they do occur, on the part of both doctors and pharmacists.
Trap #2: Being unaware of a drug's side effects. Take the initiative to ask about side effects for any newly prescribed medication.
Trap #3: Taking one drug that interacts with another. Having all your prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy will make the best use of sophisticated drug-dispensing software that checks for drug interactions.
Trap #4: Combining certain prescription and nonprescription
drugs. Schedule a "brown bag" session with your doctor or pharmacist. Put all the medications you take in one bag and have the contents reviewed.
Trap #5: Storing drugs incorrectly. Most people are aware that heat and humidity degrade drugs. Yet most of us
continue to store medications in the bathroom, the hottest and most humid room in the house.
Trap #6: Failing to have the dosage adjusted after a major
change in body weight. If you lose or gain more than ten percent of your body weight, alert your doctor, so that your medication is adjusted accordingly.
Trap #7: Using prescription drugs without medical supervision. It's best to discard pills left over from completed courses of medication.
Trap #8: Disobeying the doctor's orders. If you have doubts about your doctor's diagnosis, seek a second or even third opinion. But don't attempt to diagnose yourself when you are not qualified.
Treatment choices for urinary incontinence range from lifestyle changes
to surgery.Your treatment will depend on the
underlying problems causing the incontinence. But keep in mind that no
treatment works perfectly, and you may
have to try more than one approach before you find the one that best
suits your needs.Treatments may be different for men and women. Because
there are a variety of options, your preferences are important in
developing a plan.
You might be teaching your bladder some bad habits—habits that can
gradually result in incontinence or frequent bathroom breaks. For
example, if you routinely urinate before your bladder is full, it learns
to signal the need to go when less volume is present. That can set up a
vicious cycle, as you respond to the new urges and teach your bladder to
cry “run” when less and less urine is present. Luckily, old bladders can
learn new tricks.
Bladder training, a program of urinating on schedule, enables you to
gradually increase the amount of urine you can comfortably hold. Bladder
training is a mainstay of treatment for urinary frequency and overactive
bladder in both women and men, alone or in conjunction with medications
or other techniques. It can also help prevent or lessen symptoms of
overactive bladder that may emerge after surgery for stress
incontinence.
Step-by-step bladder-training technique Keep track.
For a day or two, keep track of the times you urinate or leak urine
during the day. Calculate. On average, how many hours do you wait
between urinations during the day?
Choose an interval.
Based on your typical interval between urinations, select a starting
interval for training that is 15
minutes longer. If your typical interval is one hour, make your starting
interval one hour and 15 minutes. Hold back.
When you start training, empty your bladder first thing in the morning
and not again until the interval
you’ve set. If the time arrives before you feel the urge, go anyway. If
the urge hits first, remind yourself that your bladder
isn’t really full, and use whatever techniques you can to delay going.
Try the pelvic floor exercises sometimes called
Kegels, or simply try to wait another five minutes before walking slowly
to the bathroom. Increase your interval.
Once you are comfortable with your set interval, increase it by 15
minutes. Over several
weeks or months, you may find you are able to wait much longer and that
you experience far fewer feelings of urgency
or episodes of urge incontinence. Keeping a bladder diary
Complete the information for two consecutive 24-hour periods. Record
both day and night. Begin with first urination upon arising.Record
intake amount in ounces and type of fluid (for example, coffee, juice,
water, etc.). Record approximate urine output and time
of urination
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