Bowel Incontinence Pads Recommendation

  • 12 replies
  • 36 subscribers
  • 644 views

Hi All, I have just joined this forum & am finding this space very supportive and informative. Thank you all for sharing and being so honest and open about your experiences xx

My mum has just been diagnosed with anal cancer, starts chemo & radiotherapy 8th July. She has been experiencing a leaky bottom, with sudden, no ability to hold, diarrhea before any treatment has started. We are on the waiting list to have support for incontinence, (have been told this will be weeks away) and I am trying to feed her more binding food, but wondered if anyone had any experience of this and any advice around pads that can cope with this diarrhea, we are going through the incontinence pants i bought from Tesco quite quickly. They are not ideal to remove when there is an accident, I have been cutting them off! Any advice greatly received xx

  • Hi Chic,

    I’m sorry but unfortunately I’m not able to advise you on your query, I hope others in this forum will be able to assist you, or I was wondering if the bowel cancer forum might be able to help you. I wish your mum well with her treatment, I’m sure they’ll be plenty of support and advice on this site if she needs it. 

    Best wishes, Adele. X 

  • Hi Chic I am sorry I did not experience this but did experience urgency in early post treatment. Has your mum got a telephone contact number for the team who will be treating her? I am wondering as the daily slog to and from hospital is stressful enough without having to worry about what your poor mum is experiencing. Is she eligible for free incontinence knickers I wonder whilst she is having her treatment. As said on here the Bowel forum may have some super tips and also look at her diet and maybe she needs to have what I think is called the white diet. Get this information out there with her team so that they are aware and look at some solutions for her. Good luck.

    Julie

  • Hello Chic

    I can only assume that the tumour has caused this sudden incontinence and I am sorry I don't have any tips to offer other than perhaps Imodium but I would stress I am not qualified to advise that.  I suffered from diarrhoea during treatment (and yes, cut the pants off whilst standing in the bath!) and I am really sorry that she is having to wait for support.  I am pleased that she has your help, and wonder if her GP might also be able to advise in the meantime.

    I do hope that you get more helpful answers.

    Irene xx

  • Thank you Adele, yes let me try this forum, thank you! And thank you for your best wishes, I have been reading the responses to my mum, she is so grateful x

  • Hi Julie, thank you - yes the people treating her have referred us to the incontinence team but this is the one with the waiting list. I will speak to them again though as my mum is getting nervous chemo may make the problem worse which is adding to the stress Disappointed

    I have not heard of the white diet so will definitely look this up - big big thank you x

  • Hi Irene, yes exactly, she never had this problem before, the tumour is right at the entrance (she was mis-diagnosed haemorroids) so is blocking things, and then she gets the diarreah so it is a balance between eating just enough binding foods not to make it hard to then go.

    Thank you for suggesting the GP, I have called them today and hope they can come back to me tomorrow! Thank you x

  • I agree with Irene  , approach your mums GP, you shouldn’t be paying for incontinence aids anyway as even if your mum isn’t of the age that she no longer pays for prescriptions she will qualify for free prescriptions due to her cancer diagnosis & should therefore get any incontinence aids free! Her GP may be able to prescribe medical grade pads also which may cope a little better than the supermarket brands. I hope you get sorted soon. 

    Nicola 

  • Hi All, just wanted to update in case anyone goes through what we have. We are in Dorset and unfortunately incontinence pads aren’t available through the GP… however a couple of days ago our referral came through, so relieved! so do push to try and speak to the incontinence referral team in your area, the lady i spoke to was super helpful! They have a limit on how much they can send but any little helps and she recommended the best product!

    I have bought many options in my quest to find the right pads and completely understand everyone is different, but many padded pads/nappies caused my mum so much pain as her tumour is sticking out a bit, the rubbing was too much. They were also huge, so completely impractical! (I was told after i opened the pack they were better suited to people that are bed bound… noone tells you this on the websites!)

    If anyone needs a recommendation:

    - Tena Proskin Fix (Fixation pant)

    - Tena Proskin Comfort - Normal

    This duo are discreet enough to wear out, soft enough that they were not painful to have on, and absorbent enough that poo is contained. (My mum only has faecal incontinence from the tumour being right on the entrance)

    i also recommend the customer service i got from this company: https://www.ageukincontinence.co.uk

    I was annoyed that you had to pay for returns, and their website is not clear on what products are best for what so i bought many wrong things that were unreturnable… however when I called them, they tried hard to put things right. So if you want advice, and cannot get hold of someone in the NHS as waiting lists are long, I would call them.

    My mum is 7 days into treatment and today the radiotherapy doctor gave us Hydromol, it is a barrier type cream that has massively helped with the excruciating burning that happens with a constant leaky bottom on the burn. So this with the pads have helped! If you are facing the same issues do ask about it!

    Hope this helps xx

  • So glad you found solutions to help with your mum’s problems. Thank you for your information which may well come in handy for those in similar circumstances 

    Julie

  • Brilliant thank you x