Let’s get a ‘wee’ bit personal…

Even when you are a bit of an open book, as I try to be in this blog, there are some things that are more difficult to talk about. I find it interesting too – as a side note – that when I sit in front of a doctor – others of you may identify with this – I think to myself, ‘I shouldn’t say poo! I should say faeces!’ or if concerned about emitting air from my bottom, I might say, ‘I’ve been a bit flatulent!’ Who actually says that! It’s simple and normal anywhere else I would say, ‘I’m a bit farty lately!’ which is the way most of us would talk. I wonder why we sit there – well me anyway – and think, ‘I better use nice words, not farty or poos!’

The women that I have known in my life, even close and family females will swap stories of the births of their children, may discuss flatulence (let’s just say it – farting) or other noises our bodies make, but when it comes to continence the subject seems harder to bring up and talk about. Yet, it is a natural part of ageing for many and no doubt for me not helped by giving birth to three good sized babies!

So, here goes. I am outing myself here. At age 63 years I have had stress incontinence – leak when I cough or sneeze and don’t even think of climbing on a trampoline – that’s a definite ‘no go zone!’ I have had many UTI’s or Urinary Tract Infections over the years and they can be horrible to deal with. I have had to wear some sort of pad for many years, just so I feel safe should a sudden dash to the loo to find it occupied is not going to have dire consequences.

Here we enter the territory of the latest gift that Parkies has given me. I have had a chronic cough for two weeks. See previous sentences above re what that might cause! You guessed it! Leakage would be underselling it! I have had to up my game quite a bit to avoid major water damage. So, Parkies people are prone to both UTI’s and urinary incontinence and I don’t do myself or anyone that reads my blog any kind of service if I don’t own that as a fact and therefore acknowledge that I need to look into how that might be rectified or managed. I apologise now to my adult children who might be reading this and it’s not a topic we would usually toss into a conversation, but it is another part of the Parkies journey that can’t be ignored or swept under the carpet.

So, after two weeks of coughing you can imagine with all these issues, including a UTI for an added bonus free gift, that my reliance on good products has also increased. I have to face the reality that this is part of my journey now that has increased in recent times.

What I don’t want to do is accept this situation blindly without exploring what or if anything can be done to address the situation. So, I will make time this week to talk to my GP about this issue and see what the next step might be.

I have ‘outed’ myself in this way exactly because I have been embarrassed to mention it as an issue. But, I have always prided myself on my honesty in this blog. Warts and all, wees and poos and issues in relation to them both are part of what we are dealing with. If I don’t model honesty about these issues in this blog and never talk about it, there might be a whole bunch of my followers who have these issues and are too embarrassed to talk about it to anyone. Even their nearest and dearest may not be aware and so they basically have no support in what is a major issue for many of us.

So, we all need to put our ‘big girl’ or ‘big boy’ pants on – and they may need to be incontinence pants at some stage – and say in whatever words are comfortable for us to use, I have issues with leakage, or wees or however you get the point across.

If we continue to hold this somewhat embarrassing issue as a closely held secret, then how will we find help for it?

It’s just a ‘wee issue’ after all!