Anyone still struggling with urinary incontinence after prostatectomy?

@retireddoc thanks for sharing. I’m pretty much back to normal besides the minor incontinence. And I have quite a few major health challenges I’m dealing with that involves pain and quite a few major surgeries on my cervical spine. So I’ve been putting my side effects down there on the back burner but it has become annoying so I reached out to people suffering from similar. I’m discovering that I’m probably better off working harder in therapy or getting some PT to see if I can get more control. Really don’t want another procedure. Thanks again for your insight and wishing you the best on your journey.

@ramblinman
It could be you are doing Keagle’s incorrectly. Hear that from a lot of people and they go to Physical therapist who specialize in incontinence. They can show you how to do it correctly.

You could always get an AUS put in if nothing else works. That would stop all the problems you are having, and there is no cost for having it put in, Or at least minimal cost since it’s covered by insurance. Life is so much easier when you aren’t leaking constantly.

@turtbean
I haven't weighed my pads, so I can't help much there. I only have to wear pads when I am active, which is anything except laying down or sitting. On weekends, when I am not sitting as much as I do at work, I go through 2-3 pads per day.

I appreciate the feedback and sharing so far. I have minor leakage and really do not want a device or procedure. I am not using pads but have leakage doing strenuous activities and after voiding ( like I am not closing the valve all the way. Not using pads is my line in the sand. I hope I have not hit a ceiling despite being 18 months post RARP
I also have some bladder signalling that increases throughout the day

For me, weighing pads has been crucial to my recovery.

Before, every week felt the same. The only tangible improvement I had was that I’d moved to being dry overnight, and I’d stopped that “gushing waterfall” emptying upon standing. That happened somewhere between 2-3 months after my catheter was removed.

I couldn’t just count how many pads I went through, because some days, I’d change more frequently than others. A pad would feel heavy, I’d take it out, and it’d be barely damp; other pads, it was the opposite. There was no consistency.

Once I started weighing, I could quantify exactly how much I was leaking, and the effect was profound, because I’d be convinced I’d had a bad day, and I’d tally up my weights at the end of the day, and I’d be able to see that maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. That helped me understand mentally that while a day or a week didn’t feel like any improvement happened, it actually did, and I could also see trends over multiple days and weeks.

That continues to this day. I was convinced that this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were bad days and were going to blow an otherwise good week. After weighing and adding everything up…yes, they were worse than the other days of the week, but not “bad,” and after averaging everything, I had my best week ever.

Had you asked me how last week felt, without weighing, I would have said it was one of my worst weeks, but scales don’t lie, and now it’s Monday, and I’m in a really good mood about things and determined to have an even better week this week.

For me, my recovery is as much psychological as it is physical. Brain believes what brain sees and can count.

I went 20 plus years after prostrate removel and I had therpy, medication, exercise and I was going thru 6 to 8 heavy duty pads a day because I am very active finally my new Dr. said lets do the PROACT which is two ballons on each side of the ureather and after 5 adjustments I wear the lighets pad and most days it is still dry at bed time. I also get in 10,000 steps per day due to heart problems. The procedure is in and out the same day and two weeks of light duty. I am so thankful that I had this done. I just celebrated my 93 birthday in August.

@turtbean great points! I haven’t been paying attention to the amount, just when I leaked and when I don’t. I can feel it when it leaks a little and it’s always stress or diet related. Orbit seems like in the evening I’m not as strong down there. After dinner, before and after shower it’s starts to leak here and there and I can seem to empty my bladder. Then I lie down and I’m dry through the night and intamacy and orgasms are very normal. Although I’m afraid sometimes. Thanks for sharing and wishing you the best on your journey,

I have had a prostate removal then radiation, was told the proact might not work, they say radiation hardens the urethra and that it might not work, same for the AUS? Any commuon these procedures?

@tsillik
I’ve been online one hour meetings with two different urologist discussing this.

One of them was the Mayo Clinic urologist who did his talk a couple of months ago.

He said if you’ve had radiation then the sling and the ProACT Device doesn’t work well. I heard the same thing from another urologist about a year ago. In his case, he specializes in incontinence and put Proact Devices in a lot of patients and then found out that It didn’t work for those that had had radiation, it hardened to the urethra.

I’ve had radiation and had an AUS installed and it works just great. I know other people that made the same comment.