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Urinary Incontinence 2
November 9, 2007
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One in three women suffers from some form of urinary incontinence.
Lillian Robinson is one of them. Her leaky bladder was making many situations uncomfortable.
She says “Standing up sometimes if I didn’t go to the bathroom I would wet myself
and at night I had to get up about 15 times.”
Dr. Dirk Peterson works with Lee Physician Group and he is the OBGYN who treated Lillian for her incontinence problems. He says, “50 to 70 percent of women will
tell you at some point in their lives they’ve suffered symptoms commiserate with
pelvic prolapsed or incontinence.”
In Lillian’s case she was able to live with her incontinence but she wanted to make
sure she prevented it from getting worse.
“I had one friend that had it and she said her bladder had fallen down between her
legs and mind had fallen down but it wasn’t that bad yet and I didn’t want it to
get that bad,” Lillian says.
After consulting with Dr. Peterson, Lillian decided that surgery was the right option
for her. Part of her procedure included a Tension Free Vaginal Tape to alleviate
her leaky bladder.
Lillian says it was a pretty pain-free process. “When I woke up I was fine. I could
eat. I could get up. I could go to the bathroom. I just took my time and recuperated.
I had no pain. There was no pain whatsoever.”
Dr. Peterson says, “A common refrain from my patients when they come back from surgery
is I don’t know why I waited so long to have this surgery.”
Dr. Peterson warns there is a 15 percent failure rate with pelvic reconstructive
surgery typically in women who abuse alcohol, cigarettes or who are overweight.
Even though Lillian is 73-years-old, she was a good candidate because of her overall
good health.
“Lillian’s doing great, she’s always made good lifestyle choices about the food
she eats and the fact that she’s not a smoker, she’s physically fit,” says Dr. Peterson.
Surgery is not the only option for helping incontinence. Ask your physician about
pelvic exercises and diaphragm-like tools that can help relieve the problem.
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