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Getting Care for the Caregiver
Once her urinary incontinence started interfering with her quality of life,
this Brick mother finally sought an effective solution to her condition that
brought her a tremendous amount of relief.
Jeanne Charland epitomizes
the giving spirit. Following
her retirement from the health
care industry, with her own
daughters now mothers
themselves, this 61-year-old
Brick woman opened her home
and heart to medically fragile
foster children. "I had so much
more time on my hands and
began some new hobbies like
quilting and sewing. Soon after
becoming a volunteer at
St. Clare’s Home for Children
in Neptune, I knew that I had
more to offer the children
there," she says.
She and her husband of five
years, Ed, have since adopted
one of those children and are
in the process of adopting
another. It’s not unusual for
their home to be shared with as
many as five children at a time
— all requiring special medical
care and an extraordinary amount
of love and patience.
Ignore No More
With so much of her time devoted
to the children, Jeanne initially paid
little attention to the mild urinary
incontinence she began experiencing.
"It was an inconvenience, but it was
something that I was able to put out
of my mind now and then. I was busy
and didn’t think that there was anything
that could be done about it anyway.
I figured it was a natural part of aging."
As is common among women who
experience urinary stress incontinence,
Jeanne found that laughing, coughing,
and sneezing triggered the condition.
Urinary incontinence is the involuntary
loss of urine to a degree that is typically
socially and hygienically unacceptable to the patient. Jeanne says that her
incontinence, once described as
intermittent, became increasingly
more frequent with time and began
affecting her ability to care for her
children. "I started to have some pain
with the incontinence, and lifting the
children caused it to become a more
serious problem."
Discouraged by her condition but
encouraged by her friends and family,
the constant caregiver finally decided
to seek some care for herself. "Once
I told my primary physician about the
problem, she immediately referred me
to a gynecologist, and a few days later,
I was sitting in Dr. Choper’s office."
Tests performed by Niles E. Choper,
M.D., a board-certified gynecologist
on staff at Ocean Medical Center,
confirmed that the position of Jeanne’s bladder was causing her
incontinence. "Surgery was
the best option for Jeanne,"
states Dr. Choper, who undertook
Jeanne’s suburethral sling, a
same-day procedure.
A Same-Day Solution
Most women who have this
surgery can go home within 23
hours, and because the incisions
are small, there is little pain
involved. "You can expect to be
up and walking the day after the
procedure, and most women
resume their full regular physical activity within 7 to 10 days of
the surgery," notes Dr. Choper. As
holds true for other bladder operations,
strenuous physical activities should
be curtailed for up to three months,
allowing incisions to heal and for
cellular fibrosis growth to secure the
sling so that the repair work will hold.
"The experience at Ocean Medical
Center was great," Jeanne declares.
"Of course I was a little hesitant
going in, but the staff was kind and
compassionate, and they took their
time to make sure I was comfortable."
Remembering her own hesitance to
seek medical help for her incontinence,
Jeanne has the following advice for
other women who may be experiencing
any level of incontinence: "Go to the
doctor. Absolutely."
 – Lynne Nouvel
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