Post Prostatectomy Two Week Progress

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

@quaddick I couldn’t have written my own experience any better! The fact that our experiences mirror each other so closely gives me confidence that you will share a similar trajectory!

I had RALP in August, 2025. After experiencing the exact thing you described, I am back to functioning as well or better than before my diagnosis. My wife and I walk 3-5 miles per day, do yoga 3x per week, and travel as much as possible. I wear a small pad at night only as a safety net, but have woken up dry for the past month.

As far as ED, I was prescribed Cialis 5mg daily in addition to the as needed Viagra. Dr. encouraged me to “coax” a morning erection when necessary as part of penile rehab. I’m happy to say that, with the exception of ejaculation (that takes some getting used to) intercourse is as frequent and satisfying as before surgery.

I know we’re all different and progress at different rates, but I see many parallels and hope your continued recovery is as encouraging!

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

Good question. Since you’ve already encountered some signs of being ready for stimulation, I think you could give it a whirl - your body will tell you if it’s too soon. I believe I experienced my first orgasm at 4 weeks and it lingered like a cramp - kind of scared me, so I backed off until my 6 weeks appt. Smooth sailing ever since.

@quaddick In addition, even if you don’t stimulate to the point of orgasm, think of it as a fun Kegel workout 😉

PART 2
I spent one night in the hospital which was pretty rough. I was kind of out of it. My family was around which was good and they made me laugh, which was good for my spirits, but hurt the hell out of my abdomen. Went home with the standard catheter and also a Jackson-Pratt drain in my side. That was annoying. Of course, the catheter isn't fun but it wasn't painful, just inconvenient. The Jackson Pratt came out 4 days later, and the catheter came out 8 days later. As others have noted in this forum, the one good thing, if you can call it that, of the catheter was that you never have to pee, just drains right out. I couldn't sleep very well in my bed, which has a pretty soft mattress, making it hard to get out of once I got in, so I spent most of my nights with the catheter sleeping in a lazy boy fully reclined.

Each day since the surgery, I've made steady improvement in feeling stronger, less fatigue, and less pain. So progress on all fronts. Before the surgery, for about a month and a half, I had been doing my kegels, and once my catheter came out, I started doing them again and even though I had been doing them pretty strong before the surgery, I found it was kind of weak afterwards but the strength has been coming back. The continence is improving- when the catheter first came out, on that day and night I just leaked all the time. I wondered if this is the way it's gonna be, but it improved and now it's not too bad. I'd feel safe going to a store. I went from overdoing it with a depends coupled with a pad to just either the pad or depends, to now where I’m wearing regular boxer briefs with a pad. I'm careful about how I move so as not to make myself leak. You know, like breathing out when you stand up- that sort of stuff. Oh, one other thing: it took three days for me to have my first bowel movement. That was a huge relief. Went quickly to regular movements after that thanks to all the fruits and veggies my wife’s been feeding me. Excuse me, if this is too much information for you. But I figured that for the guys on this forum that's what they come here for; they want the straight talk. I know that’s one of the reasons I come here.

Prior to surgery, I took my dog for a long walks every day, usually a minimum of three and a half miles, often more. That works out to about seventy two hundred steps on my phone. Two days ago, just walking around my yard and in the house, I finally reached 7200 steps. Not all at once, but in like 2 sessions. Then today I was able to actually take my dog for a walk on the trail we normally walk on, she was happy as heck but we couldn't go as far as we normally go as I could feel myself getting tired. It felt great to be outdoors! I haven't driven yet. I was going to today but before my surgery, I'd put a snow blower behind my car in the garage for easy access, and I'll have to move that first before I can get the car out. Fortunately, we haven’t had any big snow storms in Wisconsin since the surgery. Just a series of light fluffy clippers that my wife can handle. I feel like I can drive though. By the way, for painkillers, they gave me some oxycodone to take home, and I only took one on the 2nd day when the pain got to be too much. Other than that, I've been taking Tylenol, and not all the time. For last few days, not at all.

On the ED front. You guys know that when you dream, you usually get erections, I don't know why; even if you're dreaming about browsing for a book in the library, you wake up and you’ve got an erection. Anyhow, a few times over the past couple weeks, when I've woken up from a dream in middle of the night, I’ve had a partial erection. So that's hopeful. Not going to worry about that for a while, though. The doctor's office told me that when I come back for my 6 week, check-up, they'll start talking about penile rehabilitation.

But yeah, that's where things stand for now. If you got any questions that I didn't cover go ahead and ask them, I'll try and answer them and keep you posted further down the line.

Once again, thanks for all of your support. Best of luck on your journey.
Quaddick

@phayes and @quaddick - would you be willing to share your ages? I am 66 and scheduled for RALP on 3/31/26. 3+4 (1 core with 4 at10%), PSA 2.99. Found lump during rectal exam. Been on AS since 12/24. Decipher 0.54, CHEK2 gene mutation. 6’5” and 250 lbs, but in pretty good shape. Dad had PCa. Nervous as hell about incontinence and ED. Doing kegels and core work daily. I hear from a couple friends that radiation was great for them, so now I am having second thoughts about surgery. How did each of you choose surgery over radiation? Thanks.

@swen77 @quaddick I am 60, also 250 and relatively fit. Doing the kegels now and after will definitely help. My nerve-sparing RALP was in August and I still wear reinforced underwear or regular underwear with a light pad during the day with mostly no leaks and a heavy pad at night. Both more for insurance than need.

When talking with my urologist about options, I prodded him to tell me what he would do. He said he couldn’t do that, but did say, in his experience, most guys my age and my situation opt for removal. Less stress about “what if”. I also read somewhere that radiation first could make removal later more difficult as it fuses the prostate to surrounding tissues, but that is not a confirmed medical opinion. Might be a question for your medical team. The thought of continual MRIs and biopsies was also a deciding factor.

I have my 6 month check in with the urologist this week, but my GP recently did a PSA test that came back undetectable.

I manage the ED with Cialis daily and Viagra as needed. I also have a very supportive wife. We remain sexually active and have found that our relationship has improved due to there not being any pressure on performance.