Bladder irritants post surgery: Lifelong Issue or not?

While I’m not there yet so I can’t answer through personal experience, I can tell you what the NP told me at my most recent follow-up, because I asked that very question.

I’ll bet you can guess the answer…

It depends on the individual. Once recovery happens, a few guys find that they can drink anything they want without much of an issue, a few guys find they never really get over the sensitivity, and the rest discover that they can drink all the stuff they used to like, just maybe not as much - used to drink 5 cups of coffee a day? Now maybe you can drink 2 or 3. Used to have four beers on a hot Saturday? Now maybe it’s 2 tops.

I’m seven months past surgery, in the mild-to-moderate stage of my incontinence recovery, and I definitely can’t drink any alcohol yet. Haven’t really tried caffeine or fizzy drinks, so I don’t know about those.

@turtbean Thanks for that....I just wondered if I was a lost cause. Sounds like its the luck of the draw.

I wonder if you can rebuild tolerance to these irritants??? Meaning, you have to abuse your bladder by drinking a few things that are triggers to make your bladder resistant again. Kind of like your first beer when you are young tastes really bitter, than later, it tastes really good.

What do people think on that?

I had been doing really well with urge control for the past couple of weeks. But, then I go and push limits. Not saying I don't have some leakage still, but it's so much better during most normal activity. It's the urge to go that's much worse in my book. And, it's these bladder irritants that cause my setbacks.

So, literally, just today, a had a Pelvic Floor session with the therapist and told them about drinking the G2 (12 oz. at most) and how it caused me to have strong urge to go every single freaking hour.

She said, OK, it's time for TENS....we're going to hook electrodes up to you and shock your bladder. That's what I heard...I'm sure it was said more gentle than that. I imagined jumper cables being connected to my private parts..

Instead, it's hooking up the little wire leads from a small little radio-like unit to pads placed around nerve areas on your ankles. Those particular nerves actually run up your legs and connect to your bladder. You know it's working when your toes start twitching and then actually curl. You dial the setting back a little from there. I guess the concept of the "shock" therapy is that it helps settle down the urge trigger from your bladder.

I'll say this...I was having to pee every hour today until she did the TENS treatment. The rest of the day, I was back to my normal self with not much urge. I even drank a carbonated Sprite on the two hour drive home with my drive-thru meal. (call me stupid-another new drink that could cause issues-carbonation and sugar). But, no urge problems at all.

My assigned homework is to do 30 minutes of the TENS unit for the next month. I just bought the unit off of Amazon for $38, so the price isn't too bad.

Now, here's the crazy thing. Since I'm in a Restorex trial, I do that penile stretcher 30 minutes every night. Now, I figure I'll might as well add the little shock unit jumper cable unit to my ankles (which curls your toes) while I'm stretching my private part.

Really hoping no one walks in because there is no explaining away the sight they would see! 🙂

Interesting on the TENS unit…one of the tricks my PF therapist told me to do to control urges is to flex my toes several times, because it triggers that nerve to tell the bladder to calm down.

I am 15 months post surgery and had bladder sensitivity/urgency for the first 6 months. Alcohol, tea, some spacey foods were all triggers, Also had a feeling of not empty afterwords so would would need to turn around and go back in. At 3 months went to see Urologist who did an ultrasound and said bladder was empty. She it would pass and recommended drinking a lot of water every day and less of the trigger drinks or foods for awhile. I did that and by 6 months was more normal. At this point I can drink Arnold Palmer's or alcohol, or spicy food with no urgency and the feeling of incomplete emptying has passed. I would suggest you give it more time and be sure you are drinking a lot of water.

Alcohol and caffeine trigger urgency and dribbling/dripping for me. Still the case 4.5 years after surgery and 3.5 years after salvage radiation. I am happy to report these effects have lessened over time but are still present.

For me, it's that the really effective muscle is gone, & I have to rely on the other two that haven't been trained since birth (unlike the other half of our species). Before surgery 5 years ago, I could last all day. Now I carry one of those specially shaped plastic bottles in the car, but so far have not had to use it. If I'm out, I no longer automatically think "I can make it home".

I plan ahead. If the urge is there, I deal with it soon. I usually can make it through the night.

I do drink more fluids these days, so combined with the weaker muscles, I end up with frequent trips to the commode.

However, THE MOST ANNOYING THING about all of this, is NOT the frequent trips. It's that my penis has shrunk (see related threads) to the point where getting it out of my pants needs more than a little help. Even sitting naked on the commode, I have to check that the scrotal sac is not blocking the penis. If I don't, I urinate all over myself.

My husband never had this problem. He stayed away from known irritants for about 2 months and than started introducing one by one - coffee was the first since he is a big coffee drinker. Had no irritation than he tried tiny amount of red wine, no irritation. Spicy food was not the problem either. I guess as with anything it is very individual thing and it varies from patient to patient.
I hope that your sensitivity will go away in very near future 🍀.

@turtbean Hey-that's a good tip. I'm going to try that out.

@beachflyer Thanks-that gives me hope. For me, my triggers are liquid and not foods (so far).

Sorry to hear about the voiding issue...I'm sure that's challenging. One thing my therapist has pushed me hard to do is to delay urges for as long as I can comfortably do. She also wants me to consume 1/2 my weigh in water every day...which for me is 100 ounces.

The good news for me is that I've been able to eat spicy foods and other things they say to avoid. But....alcohol, citrus and some sweeteners are definitely big triggers. So, liquid triggers are my problem.

Yeah, my therapist said that if I do consume a trigger, to dilute it with water. Hoping to be better by six months.

@edo Yeah, I guess life can exist without our favorite social drugs of alcohol and caffeine cause I've done it for about four months now. But, I sure miss a wakeup kick from some caffeine and having a beer with friends.

Glad it's not as intense as it once was. I remember one poster somewhere saying that if they go out drinking , they pad up, go often and replace pads to be able to get through the night.