Whether or not you realize it, your spinal cord plays a big part in how well your bladder works. There are nerves which are located almost at the end of the spinal cord that control they workings of the urinary system. When there is an injury to the spinal cord, the kidneys are usually not affected, but the coordination of the sphincter muscles and the bladder are almost always affected, which means that the injured person not only has to deal with their spinal cord injury, but they have to manage incontinence as well. Fortunately there are many quality products on the market to help manage this condition like adult incontinent pants and pads.
After sustaining a spinal cord injury, there can be an interruption between the brain and the bladder, which may keep a person from feeling a full bladder or sensing that they need to urinate. There is a delicate dance that happens between the nerve endings in the spinal cord, the sphincter muscle and the bladder, and when the spinal cord sustains an injury the delicate balance is disrupted frequently causing adult incontinence.
Just about any spinal cord injury manifests itself in some sort of bladder control problem. There are basically two different ways that the bladder can function after a spinal cord injury, and that is reflex or non-reflex. Reflex bladder or spastic bladder happens when your bladder automatically empties when it is full. As you can imagine, if you are not getting to choose when to empty your bladder, having a full bladder empty reflexively can be a huge problem. The most common way to deal with this problem is through the use of a Foley catheter. The other type of bladder problem is a non-reflex bladder or flaccid bladder, which happens when there is no reflex in the bladder muscle. The person may not even be able to feel when their bladder is full, and there is a danger of over stretching the bladder causing urine to back up into the kidneys. Over stretching the bladder muscle will eventually damage the it. This problem is also managed with a Foley catheter by not allowing the bladder to overfill.
There are many issues to manage with a spinal cord injury, and incontinence is just one of them. With high quality adult incontinent pants and pads, it makes the process of dealing with these many different issues more tolerable. Look to your health care professional to help you find the best way to manage your personal situation.
Further Adult Incontinence Articles
- A Charming Solution for a Not So Charming Adult Incontinence Problem
- Healthcare Professionals Falling Short Dealing with Adult Incontinence
- Adult Incontinence
- The Need for Adult Incontinent Pants and Pads with a Spinal Cord Injury
- Kegels Can Help Light Adult Incontinence
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Tags: Adult Incontinence
