Looking for men who recently had a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

You started kegels 2 mos after surgery? I’m trying to do kegels but I can’t seem to get the breathing right. I think I know the video you’re talking about with that woman. I watched them was well. I’m very depressed today, just don’t want to go out and do anything, too much work to bring everything along. I know this is supposed to be temporary but it’s a long temporary.

I had my RALRP, July 18, for 6 months before surgery did pelvic floor work. I'm in excellent health except for the PC. Was very active (extreme sports). I'm 74. ADT for a year before my surgery stopped me from my sports. Since having the catheter out I have good days and bad days. But its been 6 weeks now, been doing kegaels and walking an hour a day as fast as I can. No leakage while walking, go figure. Down to 3 pads a day, but I head to the bathroom every time I stand up to avoid filing up the pads. I am happy with my progress. I can tell the kaegels are working. In 2 more weeks I can go back to doing the more advanced pelvic floor work and would hope to improve faster. Good luck.

Hi thanks! I had a few Gleason 9’s so mine was aggressive. Dr said maybe 5 weeks of radiation as precautionary. We’re you high risk?

Hey! I’m 58. Last evening I went to Avon fire with some friends, got up every 45 minutes or so and went to the bathroom, was pretty dry. Went to bed feeling pretty good, now today I leaked quite a bit. Very depressing. Did you have up and down days as well? Feels like this is going to be a never ending battle

I had my surgery on Aug. 3rd. 6.9 PSA, Gleason of 8, Biopsy full of cancer and on the margin too but both CT and Bone S said no spread, post surgery Surgeon said no spread and Lab work on two lymph nodes taken and the outside of the prostate says no cancer spread at all. Odds of this outcome were very low. We are still shocked but very happy. Those diapers suck, gives me jock itch bad, pee pee all the time but have a small towel in underwear and with doing all the exercises on the dinky, now I can walk 10 seconds and make it to the toilet. I do those exercises all day long. In 3 months, get another PSA reading and if not bumped up from -.1, I will be sort of out of the woods. No radiation and only had one Lupron shot so nothing now. What an awful time from Aug. 3rd to about Aug. 20, then pain slowed some, pee tube taken out. God answered the more than 500 that had been praying for me for over a month. This outcome was not luck. God Bless all of you.

I have 5 friends who have been through the surgery too. A few not long ago. It takes time and effort on your part with the dinky exercises to right the ship. I can already feel some gain here. The Surgeon had and has me do 10 10 times of hold fast hard, and release and then quickly followed up with 10 10 second holds strong, and repeat at least 3 times a day. All my 5 friends are normal now except one uses a pad if he is exercising or going out for many hours from the dribble crap pee. I am just glad to be alive and grateful to God for my cancer gone Diagnosis and the pee dribbling and hard to hold the pee, well, it is better than not being able to pee at all as some have experienced.

I'm almost 7 months post RALP and have commented many times in other posts so this may sound redundant if you've seen those. I am not yet fully continent, and to be truthful, I don't really know what fully continent will feel like should I get there. Two weeks before my surgery, a pelvic floor specialist gave me exercises to do and told me I had very good strength and control of those muscles, based on my test results. Once my catheter came out 7 days post surgery, I was convinced that I would be one of those that recovered quickly. I was wrong. Though I never have had a leakage issue at night or while sitting, I have always leaked while being vertical, whether it was standing, walking, playing golf or pickleball. On a positive note, the amount of leakage has dramatically reduced over time. I was going through two depends a day, even with pads inserted in them. Now I only use a depends if I will be upright and away from a bathroom for a long time. I typically use a thick pad inside a jock while playing pickleball and if I'm not doing something all that active a light pad inside jockey underwear will get me through most of a day. Golfing 18 holes is a different story. I was prescribed an external (condom catheter) and use it for golf. I have figured out how to fold the bag against my upper thigh and can wear shorts without it showing. I have been able to go two hours before needing to empty it. So in 7 months I have gone from leaking profusely to having good control and much less leakage while vertical. My cautionary note is that I have a friend who had the surgery years ago and he still uses a light pad every day in his underwear. And he is considered to be continent. That is why I said above that I don't really know what continent means. I originally thought it meant going back to full control but now I'm guessing it means one light pad a day. One other thing: I had the damndest time explaining to friends why the leaking issue occurs at all, even though they knew I had the surgery. No one really understands the concept, so I likened a man's urethra to a one-way road, with urine being the traffic. Before my surgery there were two stoplights and one blinking red light between my bladder and the end of my penis. Now, the two stoplights have been removed and I have to train that remaining light to change its blinking pattern so it can stop traffic for long periods of time. That's what the kegels are all about. Good luck to you and all of us.

Hey Jerry,

I started doing Kegels yesterday and don’t know if I over did it or what but seemed to leak more after for a few hours. Did you have this too?

Hi! I did some Kegels yesterday and I seem to have leaked more for a few hours after. Did you come across this as well?

I've never had Kegels lead to more leakage. I do them in sets: One set = 10 reps of 'hold for 10 seconds' with a 10 second break in between, followed by 10 reps of 'hold for 1 second' with a one second break in between. No more than one set per hour, trying for 10 sets a day. 10 sets a day was easy during my 6 weeks of convalescence. Once I became active again, it wasn't so easy to remember to do them every hour. What is your regimen with Kegels? Perhaps you are doing too much?