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Prostatectomy And Incontinence: When can I expect it to improve?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 22 7:49pm | Replies (27)Comment receiving replies
I am in the exact same situation, 2 wks. Post surgery. Just joined but read a lot of comments prior. I felt I'm on an island but after reading some the posts I, we aren't much different than others. Physicians suck a providing expectations and I thought I would have leakage but not at the incidence/rate I'm experiencing. No way that incontinence briefs can hold my nighty pee. I wear briefs at night and a baby diaper also next to my skin. Ran through a bunch of the grandsons young age(20# maybe) and work well. Blow through those and tried left over new borns and that was a disaster due to not enough holding capacity. This crap suck but thank you all for posting previous comments whereas it gives me hope in my highly impatient mind set.
Replies to "I am in the exact same situation, 2 wks. Post surgery. Just joined but read a..."
@kcman1960
You are very early in your recovery and with kegels and pelvic floor exercises your incontinence can improve dramatically over time. Only about 10% of men are fully continent first day after cath. is removed. If your surgeon did not give you instructions for exercise (that should start even before surgery) ask him to at least give you now referral for PT. In the meantime you can start doing at least Kegel exercises - go into history here and you will find bunch of links and book that cover this problem.
About 95% of post RP patient regain full continence by year 1. About 1/3 by 4 mos. My husband was in this category - he became fully continent at 4 mos.
Also, baby diapers are not designed for full grown man and you should buy Depends or Tena products designed for man incontinence. I am really worried with the fact that your surgeon did not give you even instructions about available products in pre op consultations (???) . I hope you had your surgery with experienced surgeon (with over couple of thousand RP surgeries) and at the big cancer center of excellence.
Wishing you all the best and keep in mind that resolving continence is "long game" and requires very specific exercises.
@kcman1960
I know I talked about the AUS, But you are definitely not in need of that yet, It’s just something you should keep in your back pocket in case everything doesn’t work like normal.
A pelvic floor physical therapist may be able to get you right back to normal. As other say, most people do get back to normal within a a year at the most.
You just need to follow the instructions of a PT and try to rebuild the strength of the sphincter that’s still in your body.
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@kcman1960
You really need to look into an AUS (Artificial urinary sphincter).
I had one put in in June and activated in July and I am pretty much 100% continent after six years ago having to wear black pants and worrying about how much I would leak.
I do have to press a button in my scrotum to pee, but it’s better than always having to worry.
If you haven’t had radiation, then the ProACT Is even a better option.
You don’t have to live with this problem. It is resolvable.