Pad (for leaking) recommendation after prostate surgery

I like your attitude. I’m 71 and work out everyday, whether it be cardio related or strength training. I do 300 abs everyday. Did you do kegels? I’m assuming you had a catheter for a week or so. BTW, are you “drip free”? I’ll await your response. KJ

We had a 3 day drive after my husband's surgery in June. So, we bought Depends pull ups for the trip. When we got home he used a medium pad for about a week. He now uses just the light pad daily and at night mostly as precaution, with minimal incontinence. Coughing is a bad trigger and he carries a few cough drops in his pocket all the time. Alcohol is another thing that seems to cause issues overnight. So limiting that is good. He is faithful doing kegels and we know that has been a big help. As for undies, he used jockey shorts with the catheter while he normally wears boxer style. Best of luck and speedy recovery.

Thank you and best of health!

I has a prostatectomy 6 weeks ago at Mayo in Phoenix. Due to the aggressiveness of my cancer, my procedure was non-nerve sparing. As my surgeon put it, he did the best cancer surgery he could, meaning he took as much tissue as possible. I am permanently impotent with no hope for an errection without shots or more surgery. I am also completely incontinent when up and about, but do pretty well when at rest or sleeping. I have seen little to no improvement, but I'm told 3 months to a year may be required - if it improves at all. I use a variety of products including Tena maximum absorbancy pads, Depends, and Amazon Essentials. They all perform ok, but needing to change products 4-5 time per day is limiting, obnoxious, and expensive. Having an understanding spouse is important due to the drips, stains, smelly waste, etc. I'm very fortunate in that arena! I have started using a penis clamp during the day. It reduces flow d
and helps increase bladder capacity, but I still need to wear a pad as there is leakage and the occasional squirt. After having read many blogs and papers, it is clear that post-prostatectomy incontinence is a much more common and long lasting problem than most surgeons lead you to believe. Obviously, getting the cancer treated is essential, so there is little regret, however, I think that patients should be better educated as to the realistic probability of incontinence, that incontinence goes on often longer than expected, and in more than a few cases, it lasts forever requiring some future surgical efforts like a sling or artificialsphincter. Good luck to everyone dealing with this situation!

I hope your situation gets turned around. Thoughts and prayers🙏

This is very encouraging! My husband is having RP at the end of February. His surgeon referred him to a PT that does pelvic floor therapy and my husband has been doing the kegels, every day, twice a day. He also works out 5 times a week and we walk almost every day. I want to get some pads for after his surgery (just in case) but not sure what I should be buying. We are both very positive and doing whatever we need to do as a TEAM!

After my catheter was removed, I worn some for a couple days just as a precaution. I actually liked the nighttime protection that wears like underwear. Best of wishes.

Incontinence is a highly variable outcome and you should prepare accordingly. The kegels and core strengthening are very important, but more important is the magnitude of the surgery. If it's a relatively routine RARP, then urinary contenence should recover quickly. If they remove all the nerve bundles, seminal vessels, etc., then incontinence is going to take longer to deal with. During the week with the catheter, you don't need any absorbant products at all. When the catheter comes out you will likely need some for some time, at least. Different men like different products. I actually liked the grey pullup from Depends. I was completely incontinent for months and they protected the most. As things improved I tried a lot of different products but eventually settled on the Tena overnight pads. At 8 months out, I still have leakage and have used the lighter Tena pads, but stress incontinence can cause leakage outside the pad, so I still use the Tena overnight pads. They're not that bulky and one pad last me all day. It really does just become a trial-and-error thing to find out what you need and what's comfortable? Not all products fit well, but my recommendation would be to have some pullups and some pads so you can deal with either situation. The overall recovery from surgery is actually pretty quick, so both of you hang in there. It will all work out OK!

My husband used the shields during the day and the thicker pads at night. Although he changed his fluid intake and only had water with medication to keep his chances of leaking down. Lifting anything heavy was definitely something that caused leakage along with being cold. We found changing the type of underwear made a big difference in keeping the pad from moving around and causing an issue.

Thank you for your response! How long after surgery were you were able to go away on vacation or take a flight?