Continence Diary - thoughts and findings?

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ozziebee

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  1. Diaper Lover
  2. Incontinent
Hiya All,

Who maintains a Continence Diary?

I haven't been specifically told I had to start one, but thought it'd be a good idea anyway. So at the start of the month, whilst bored at work, I started one.

Have now been tracking in and outs for a month, and the results are interesting.

1) I drink way too much coffee
2) I'm inputting between 1800 and 2600ml per day (water coffee tea milk...)
3) The past four days, my output has dropped right off (the graph is quite glaring), outputting only 500ml for the day (1850 input). I can feel this retention in my legs and feet, tightness in my clothes. This, I'm starting to worry over...
4) My sister says "you should be drinking 3L water", but my body is telling me that I'm not thirsty... so I'm not drinking.

What do you lot track in your continence diaries?
 
I did once, just to verify what was going in, and when it was coming out.

Coffee is ok, just don't brew it so dark you can't see the bottom of the pot. And it's best to not drink it after lunch. Your sister might be right too. 2 liters is pretty much the minimum you need to stay healthy- mire depending on your weight. Yeah you can survive on, and even get used to, less than that, but it's not helping you by staying dehydrated so much.
 
I did one for myself when I went to my doctor. At the time I was experiencing Over Active Bladder and urge issues. I was going 150ml every hour or so and having enuresis issues at night. Since taking Flomax all the OAB problems have gone away (well, almost). Coffee, alcohol and soda are killers for me. I would dump them almost as fast as I take them in. Also, anxiety over the whole IC issue doesn't help either I found. So, yeah a diary will give you a lot of information. If I were to pursue my issues further I would definitely start another diary.
 
I had to keep a continence diary while being assessed by the Continence nurse for my supply of pads from the NHS
 
Out of curiosity, for nighttime only I’ve been logging my “out” for the last couple of years. With no change in input my overnight out goes from 40 ounces plus all the way down to a rare zero. So much variation makes no sense to me.
 
WBxx said:
Out of curiosity, for nighttime only I’ve been logging my “out” for the last couple of years. With no change in input my overnight out goes from 40 ounces plus all the way down to a rare zero. So much variation makes no sense to me.

The human body goes through natural cycles of retaining and expelling water. Women get this to a greater extent than men, but we guys do get it as well. Most just never notice.

How much water we expell is also affected by what foods we have recently eaten, how tired we are, and a whole slew of other factors. It's quite normal, and to be expected.
 
Lots of people drink much more water than they need. I know people who push 4L a day, regardless of activity levels, water content of food, or what else they're drinking.

The body is very good at maintaining the proper fluid balance. However, to keep your kidneys healthy (and to avoid stones) it's often recommended to drink enough fluids to keep your urine pale yellow. This will also help about bladder irritation from concentrated urine, and will help keep the urine from smelling strongly for those of us who wear diapers.

I kept a bladder diary for about a month some time ago. The big thing I learned from it is that my bouts of urgency we're much more frequent than I'd realized. That put my urge incontinence into better perspective.
 
I'm not logging any urges, or floods, only pad weights after nappy changes, and estimates of output after I've been to the toilet normally.

So, at work, I'm going about 5 to 6 times to the toilet in 8 hours, and working work days, three nappy weights. On weekends, it's about 4 to 5 nappy weights.

None of those recordings show how many urges/floods I have between each change (nor those which lead to urine output into pullups at work).
 
I kepet a log of my bladder issues when by OAB fist started to act up neither my docor or urologist wanted ti see it so I stopped recording.
 
Slomo said:
The human body goes through natural cycles of retaining and expelling water. Women get this to a greater extent than men, but we guys do get it as well. Most just never notice.

How much water we expell is also affected by what foods we have recently eaten, how tired we are, and a whole slew of other factors. It's quite normal, and to be expected.

Thanks for the reassurance. Somewhat related, with increasing age I sense my overnight urine production has significantly increased. As a young man I don’t recall ever, or at least rarely, needing the bathroom during the night. Granted, my bladder capacity was greater back then. But even at that, I don’t believe it could have ever held the volume I frequently generate overnight now. Assume it’s the same for others?
 
WBxx said:
Thanks for the reassurance. Somewhat related, with increasing age I sense my overnight urine production has significantly increased. As a young man I don’t recall ever, or at least rarely, needing the bathroom during the night. Granted, my bladder capacity was greater back then. But even at that, I don’t believe it could have ever held the volume I frequently generate overnight now. Assume it’s the same for others?

Lol, yeah it's the same for others. It's extrememly common for the elderly to need getting up more than once a night (or use a diaper). The older you get, the closer you get to that point.
 
I've been tracking my overtime volume for the last couple of weeks that I've had a catheter in. I very consistently end up with 1200 ml in the bag, but if I drink anything at all in the last two hours before bed it'll be more. Last night I had a big glass of water before bed, and the bag was completely full with slightly over 2000 ml.

Considering my usual bladder volume before I start having severe urgency is 400 ml, I guess I know why I have to get up multiple times in the night.
 
ltaluv said:
I've been tracking my overtime volume for the last couple of weeks that I've had a catheter in. I very consistently end up with 1200 ml in the bag, but if I drink anything at all in the last two hours before bed it'll be more. Last night I had a big glass of water before bed, and the bag was completely full with slightly over 2000 ml.

Considering my usual bladder volume before I start having severe urgency is 400 ml, I guess I know why I have to get up multiple times in the night.

Ok, now THAT much is excessive. It sounds like your kidneys aren't slowing down at all at night. 600ml overnight is not uncommon, but 1200+ is. I'd bring this up at your next appointment.
 
I'd never really thought about it. Looking it up, I guess it is to much volume. It's possible that I'm just drinking to much water throughout the day - I try to keep my urine pale yellow, per my doctor's instructions to cut down on recurrence of kidney stones. However, I also have liver disease that includes blockage of my bile ducts, which can turn my urine dark as my kidneys start working to remove bilirubin from my blood that my liver can't get rid of. So I never know if dark urine is because of dehydration or liver issues.

Or maybe I have the beginnings of diabetes. Just what I need, more medical problems.
 
Slomo said:
Ok, now THAT much is excessive. It sounds like your kidneys aren't slowing down at all at night. 600ml overnight is not uncommon, but 1200+ is. I'd bring this up at your next appointment.

hmm... according to my diary, I did 1270 overnight a few nights ago. Last night was 1040. This afternoon, 1000 neat. Today's input a neat 2L.

Max overnight output was 1460 towards the start of the month (whilst on those water pills).
 
ozziebee said:
hmm... according to my diary, I did 1270 overnight a few nights ago. Last night was 1040. This afternoon, 1000 neat. Today's input a neat 2L.

Max overnight output was 1460 towards the start of the month (whilst on those water pills).

I usually input a little over 2 liters per day as well. This is just enough to keep my pee a very light yellow. My urologist told me that was perfect.

My max overnight output is closer to 400-500ml though. I used to wake up 3-5 times every night due to my urges. My urologist said the volume was perfectly normal too, but I needed to address the interrupted sleep. Since my surgery I've been sleeping better than a baby, so really hoping it stays that way.
 
Last night was 1800 ml. I probably had a bit more to drink than usual in the evening, since I worked until almost ten finishing up a project that had to be delivered this morning, but a lot any way you look at it. If I didn't have a catheter in, it would have been multiple times of waking up, either for bathroom trips or diaper changes.
 
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