Do you have an upcoming vacation or road trip? Are you nervous because you experience urinary urgency or frequency? Urinary urgency and frequency are quite common. Here are a few tips and techniques you can use to make your trip more enjoyable.
4 Tips To Keep You On The Road:
- It’s important to know what a normal schedule looks like. A normal range of voiding (or peeing) is every 2-4 hours, so try to plan your stops accordingly. Avoid going “just in case” or stopping more often than every 2 hours. Retraining the bladder and spacing fluid intake throughout the day can improve urgency and frequency of urination.
- If you find yourself needing to stop more frequently than every 2 hours, try limiting certain drinks/foods that irritate the bladder including caffeine (coffee, cola, tea, artificial sweeteners) and foods including apples, spicy foods, chocolate, citrus fruits. Try these less irritating snacks instead:
- Low fat acid fruits: pears, apricots, papaya, watermelon
- Coffee: Kava (low acid instant), cold brew from Starbucks, Pero
- Tea: non-citrus herbal, sun-brewed tea
- More ideally, stick with water
- An urge to urinate is a signal that you feel as the bladder stretches, but when this first happens the bladder is usually only half full. This does not mean you need to go to the toilet immediately. Try a few of these urge suppression techniques to get you to your next planned road stop:
- Stay calm. Relax your body and take 10 deep breaths.
- Perform 10 quick contractions of your pelvic floor muscles and raise your heels up and down at least 10 times.
- Distract yourself; try counting backwards or think of a song.
- When you do make it to the toilet, remain calm and walk to the bathroom, sit down completely (Don’t hover! Even if you have to use a seat cover.) in order for your pelvic floor muscles to completely relax and improve emptying of the bladder.
If you find yourself stopping to urinate frequently while traveling or even just day to day, give us a call. We’d love to help you get back to your healthiest self. For further information and education on how to improve these issues, visit our locations page and give us a call or request an appointment! Happy traveling!
Ashley Friday, Doctor of Physical Therapy