leakage after catheter removal

15 years after surgery and 12 years after radiation I’m having some leakag, started about 6 years ago and has gotten a little worse over time. Started taking Myrbetriq About four months ago. It has helped a lot. The longer I’ve been on it the more it helps.

Your husband is real early in his post surgery time, it is likely the problem will get better over the next few months without doing anything.

Thank you for your response! I will keep that in mind about the myrbetriq!

I certainly don't know for sure, but that said I agree with @jeffmarc and his care team. Before surgery my surgeon told me I had a 90% chance of being continent at 1 year. I actually got lucky and was immediately continent, but I still have a few leakage accidents during the first 3 months or so as my brain adjusted to the new normal. At 9 months I no longer have any accidents at all plus I've regained my confidence. Based on my surgeons answer being framed at "1 year" and my personal experience, I think it takes a while to adjust to the new normal for most guys so I think your surgeon and urologist gave some reasonable advice. I'm not a medical professional so this is just my 2 bit opinion. Best wishes.

I can't find where I posted my situation before so I will repeat it in a Reader's Digest version. At the age of 70 I had RALP in Feb. 2023. Prior to it, a pelvic floor specialist put me through tests and said those muscles were in good shape. Post surgery, I never had urge incontinence, but had a lot of stress incontinence, more than one pad per day when doing anything active. I was doing kegels, but not core strengthening exercises. 6 months later, I requested a referral to a pelvic floor therapist whose exercises made things improve to 80% continence. Time and continued exercise (on my own at home) brought that to 90% dry, and I plateaued there. My doctor felt that was as much healing as I would get on my own. One light pad per day. On the second anniversary of the initial prostatectomy, I elected to have a male urinary sling implanted. Six weeks later, I am 99.9% dry. The .1% problems now center around immediate post-voiding drips, but for the most part I am back to where I was. These last two years remind me of hearing about lottery winners on the news but you never hear about the millions of ticket buyers who lost. Post surgery recovery is like a lottery. Prostatectomies cause more incontinence than doctors admit to, I am convinced. But we hear from the patients who are dry almost instantaneously and wonder what we did wrong. Just have your husband keep trying, and if his exercises aren't also working on his core, his progress will likely be limited. Good luck. And go to the National Association for Continence website and read from other men who are in his shoes.

Thank you for your response! I appreciate it!

Since he had his surgery on 2/28 and catheter removed on 3/10 my husband feels like it might be too early for abs…he is going to double check with his dr regarding how long he needs to wait before doing abs..that plus now his urine has a blood tint to it.. thank you for getting back to me on this!!

You are absolutely right about timing. I did nothing for 6 weeks at first and only gradually got back into things after that. My core exercises didn't even start until 8 months after the operation. Slow and steady wins the race.

I agree i am in a similar boat
had my surgery Jan 15 and catheter removed two weeks later.
Despite everyone being different. my doctor and others have told me quite a few make a turn for the better around 3-4 months.
I know this is not going to happen for everyone but I can tell that I am making progress and it has only been a little over two months

That is great news! Happy to hear you are progressing that quickly! Thank you for your response! It is encouraging!

Okay - we will be patient then. I do not want to cause any complications! My husband has been through enough already! Thank you for your response!