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How do you rate your quality of life post prostatectomy (RALP)?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 12 5:10pm | Replies (64)Comment receiving replies
I sure hope I don't have to stay the way I am now on this incontinence issue, it irritating, annoying and frustrating. I do all the kegels exercises, about 360 a day. Hopefully can start pelvic PT in couple weeks. Doctor said he wouldn't send in a referral for PT until 3 months and that is needed for Medicare payments. Medicare won't pay for PT on self referral. I stopped caffeine and alcohol drinking. Didn't drink much alcohol anyway, so that doesn't bother me much. Was eating lasagna the other night and wanted a glass of wine, but drank a Sprite instead.
I believe it all stress incontinence. When I lay around on couch, sit and visit or sleeping there is no problem leaking. I get the urge to pee and make it to bathroom with few drips when getting up and first few steps. But through the day when I am moving around it's a different story. In morning I weigh pad and it's usually .1 to .4 oz. Once last week .7oz. I believe that all happens when I get up out of bed and a little stress drips. For whatever reason I am getting up 4 times a night and have a full strong stream! I stop drinking around 7PM - 8PM and go to bed at around 12AM. Don't understand how I pee so much at night, yet during the day it's all drips unless I been sitting and visiting. They say they have a mesh thing to put in and can do in an office visit, but doctor saying they like to wait a year. Suppose to really work, but have to wait a year. Oh well, I know people in worse shape and should complain so much. Just a real change if life style in short period of time.
Also in this heat high 90, feel like temp 110 I am starting to get a rash or itch.
Replies to "I sure hope I don't have to stay the way I am now on this incontinence..."
@diverjer After my RARP in 2015, I never recovered from stress incontinence. Went through 1-2 pads per day. It was pretty annoying, and somewhat limiting for activitites, and a constant worry. My urologist, about two years after the surgery, put the urethral sling surgery on the table and left the decision to me. I underwent a double hernia surgery about 6 months after the RARP, and really was not very keen on yet another surgery for a few years, so I just lived with the incontinence. Finally, in 2023, I had enough of the stress incontinence and did the sling (“mesh”) surgery. It was a complete success, and I recovered from the bruising and swelling (not much pain, just ugly looking priavtes) in a couple of weeks. No more pads. Big upgrade in quality of life.
I had a local recurrence last year (2025) and underwent 8 weeks of radiation therapy. My urologist told me to expect some loss of incontience, even with the sling. Glad to report that that has not happened. Still living without pads. Maybe I am a little more “drippy” than before, but hard to say if that is therapy related or age related (I’m 73). Either way, it is of minor concern compared to the stress incontience.
There is hope for surgically correcting stress incontinence.
@diverjer I had RARP and also have to pee a few times at night, strong stream and a lot of urine. My PT suggested a couple of things...1. wear compression socks the last few hours of the day and 2. Before bed raise your feet (like putting on headboard) and flexing ankles, then go pee. These are to get rid of fluid retention.
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@diverjer -- I'm not a medical professional, so take my laymans comment with a grain of salt. When I asked my doctor about incontinence and ED before surgery, he explicitly stated my odds at 1 year. I assumed from his response that it's pretty common to take a year to recover. So I suspect your doctor doesn't want to do a procedure to address your incontinence until a year has passed as you may well recover without the procedure. I certainly don't know, but I thought I'd share that thought. Best wishes.