If you have OAB, or an overactive bladder, you are quite familiar with the symptoms. You urinate a lot, have an uncontrollable urge to pee, have incontinence, and have to get up to pee at night. It’s relentless and tiring. The good news is getting OAB treatment now could give you relief by the holidays.
Too Much of a Good Thing
The optimist in you might think OAB is simply too much of a good thing. Urinating is important and everyone needs to do it, but this overabundance is debilitating. You would rather be in control. If you have an overactive bladder, you most likely have stress incontinence too, meaning you involuntarily pee when you sneeze, cough, or laugh. That’s not fun either.
These involuntary bladder contractions are the underlying cause of OAB, but this chronic condition is controllable with the right treatment. Rather than staying locked up in your house during the upcoming holidays, see Texas Center for Urology in the Fort Worth area for a treatment that will free you from the symptoms of this disorder.
Treatments For OAB
1. Behavioral Therapies
Pelvic Floor Exercises
Kegel exercises strengthen your pelvic muscles and urinary sphincter. These stronger muscles will help you stop your bladder’s involuntary contractions. Texas Center for Urology can show you the best way to perform Kegel exercises.
Keep A Healthy Weight
Losing weight can help ease your symptoms by reducing the pressure on your bladder.
Scheduled Trips
Set a timer for every 2 or 3 hours to help you set specific times to urinate. This bladder training can increase until finally you are waiting to pee for longer periods.
2. Drugs And Medications
Texas Center for Urology can prescribe diuretics, anti-diuretics, antidepressants, and other medications.
3. Home Remedies
This is a mixture of behavior changes to diet and drinking habits. It includes: drinking less caffeine, carbonated drinks, alcohol, tea, and citrus juice. Avoid foods like chocolate, spicy foods and tomatoes. Tobacco can irritate the bladder, so stopping smoking may help.
4. Electrical Stimulation
This can accompany a physical therapy session as part of pelvic floor therapy. It helps control urgency, frequency, and leakage, and pelvic floor muscle strength.
5. In-Office Interventions
PTNS
Mild electrical currents are sent to the muscles of the pelvis and lower back. One is known as PTNS, or Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimulation. It can be utilized when other remedies have not given relief.
Botox
Injecting Botox into the bladder muscle helps to relax the bladder so you hold more urine. Symptoms are relieved for 3 to 12 months.
Neuromodulation
In addition there is an outpatient procedure known as neuromodulation or Interstim Therapy. This implantable device sends mild electrical pulses to the sacral nerves to reduce symptoms of bladder control problems.
Surgery
This is a last resort and only recommended if all other treatments fail.
Schedule a Consultation in Fort Worth, TX
Contact Texas Center for Urology at (817) 871-9069 to see which overactive bladder treatment may be right for you. It’s time to get back to living.
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