DH has been on Namenda for 2 weeks now. I keep asking him if all is going well with the gastro-intestinal stuff and he tells me all is fine. However, today we were on a walk and he was pretty much "tooting" himself down the street. Then , absolutely out of the blue, we're walking down our street about to meet up with some neighbors and I look down and notice that he has peed his pants. No warning, just wets his pants. Is this a common feature of this drug or the AD.
I guess it's time to convince him to wear Depends. He's so unwilling to own up to anything - he just says that well at his age you have accidents. Well, that could be true, but I don't want to be off on a road trip or walking around town and have this happen. This is most distressing.
My dh took Namenda for over 6 months but didn't have that side effect. My dh lost control of his bowels the other morning. Blamed me for feeding him something unusual. I ate same stuff he did. Hasn't happened since. I wonder if the muscles are just weakening. In any event, I am going to buy some Depends for him to have on hand. The whole thing unnerved him.
I have read that the muscles we use to control urination and bm's get much weaker as we age and I'm guessing that AD exacerbates that problem, as well. I feel so bad for him that all this is happening to him - it must be so humiliating. For all of our married life he's been the pillar of strength and type A personality. Getting old really sucks.
All this is a great big eye opener to me about getting older and what can and probably will happen to me someday. I know that I won't be able to count on our daughters to take care of me (after all, I'm only 10-12 years older than they are), and, well, they have lives and I'm pretty sure that taking care of me will not be a high priority for them when the time comes. And, besides, I wouldn't want that anyway. So, when that day comes, I hope that the Lord will just take me quickly and quietly and I won't have to be a bother to anyone.
I really think this loss of muscle control is due to the AD. My sister-in-law had AD and she experienced loss of control in those areas years before she was put in NH. Couldn't blame it on childbirth either as she had no kids. My mother lived to 92 and was sharp and never had that problem. Go figure. We can't blame a lot of stuff just on age. Like you, mothert, all the AD spouses want to go quickly and not be a burden to anyone. Can you imagine all the unexplained deaths that would occur?
My husband's now in a nursing home and they have a catheter inserted and.. no more of those sopping diapers. They have a small catheter bag they strap to his leg when they take him out of his room. He's been incontinent for years. There, it's just calmly accepted.