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Living with Prostate Cancer: Meet others & introduce yourself
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Mar 16 1:38pm | Replies (607)Comment receiving replies
Hello,
I'm Rudy and had my biopsy on 10/22 and received my diagnosis of prostate cancer on 12/23/22. I had a Gleason score of 3/4 on 2 of 16 samples from my biopsy. Doctors recommended surgery because I'm 58. My PET scan were negative and I had RP on 3/15/23. During RP doctors removed lymph nodes on one side of my groin area, which tested positive for cancer.
Luckily, some of the nerves around my prostate were spared. Today is the 5th week since my surgery. Recovery has been going well with the exception of my incontinence.
I feel slight improvement with my incontinence. I have the normal leakage upon standing up, which I'm fine with.
What drives me nuts is when I get periods of slow leakage that I can't control, which is everyday. I do the kegel exercises but I don't feel they are working. I am using pads and depends underwear. I use at least 12 pads a day and use the depends to guarantee I stay dry.
I have been walking and moving around since surgery. I read and happy for others who did not get incontinent or had for a short time. The last 2 days I've been keeping my water limiting my liquid intake to around 64 ounces with slight improvement.
Any suggestions to what I'm not doing or doing wrong so I can improve my level of incontinence.
Thanks Rudy
Replies to "Hello, I'm Rudy and had my biopsy on 10/22 and received my diagnosis of prostate cancer..."
Rudy I would strongly recommend going to a Pelvic Floor specialist who uses a biofeedback device. I am 5 years post surgery and still suffer from incontinence. You are only 5 weeks post surgery. I did go to a PF specialist after surgery and it really helped but it took a long time to really master the technique and you might have to keep doing them for your entire life. I would recommend the book Prostate Recovery Map by Craig Allingham. At my first consult after surgery, my urologist said it would get better and it did and it has. Everyone is different and while I am totally dry overnight I do use one diaper and pad per day which I am fine with. At 81, I am still able to ski, golf and play squash and lead a normal life. It was recommended that I get the AUS device but for me I thought the idea was much worse than using a pad and diaper per day. We are all different in terms of our tolerance to incontinence. Keep working on it and it will get better. I would suggest only using the clamp as a temporary device to avoid any embarrassing leakage.
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Agree with web265.
And, Kegel technique is important and if you have not had direction from an experienced PT, that night be helpful.