Prostate Cancer Incontinence: What products do you use? Tips?

@ramblinman
I can’t understand why people wear depends briefs when they can use a pad. If you use those briefs, you can’t easily pee without removing the brief. So, do you always pee right into your underwear? I know for me that would cause a continuous rash below my waist.

I wear a pad and may have to change it a couple of times a day, but I can go into a bathroom and pee without having to remove my underwear. I found that if I pee every hour and a half to two hours, my pad does not get very wet, Even though I drip constantly if standing or sitting.

Underwear like jockey shorts can easily hold a thick pad, but still enable you to stand at a urinal and pee by doing it through a raised leg band, since the normal opening is blocked by a pad.

Just some thoughts by someone with a real incontinence problem I want to get an AUS to resolve.

@jeffmarc I TOTALLY understand where you're coming from Jeff. I have the same exact issue. Whenever I go out in public, I put a clamp on and a light pad over it just in case. It really does a LOT. But I just went to my 6 month checkup and the conversation went to AUS. I'm going to talk to him in 6 mos. I'm thinking it'll be a great chance to get back to "normal."

Best of luck to everyone here! Love you all!
Doug

@topf
Thanks for the note

I had surgery 9 months ago and am still having incontinence issues. You mentioned that he is using Depend briefs and changing them as needed. I started that way too, but quickly learned that changing a brief required taking off my shoes and pants, which is not always easy or convenient. I now still wear Depend briefs but also use a pad (several brands are available, including Depend). That gives me a very easy way to change the pad as needed, sometimes without even unzipping my pants, and the Depend brief gives me a "dependable" backup in case the pad gets oversaturated. I do not use the adhesive strip that is on most pads, as it tears the Depend brief apart when removing the pad.

@topf

Thanks Topf for the info : )
Do you see more progress with those new exercises ? I am asking since PT in a hospital gave my husband some "posture" exercises that would supposedly correct pelvic tilt and speed up recovery, but we were skeptical about that. My hubby was not instructed to stop K's and he is doing new exercises although we do not see how they can help , but now I wonder if there is something to it. However, he got only ONE exercise, that I find really sub-optimal in general. I think that we might try to find private PT practice after all.
Do you mind sharing level of incontinence at this point ?
My husband has about 3-10 ml at night and about 20 ml during a day. He is 9 weeks post op now and started with about 70 ml in 24 hours 2 weeks after cath came out. He is not complaining at all, but I am perfectionist and always try to "put things in order" as fast as possible *sigh 😵‍💫
Thanks so much in advance 🙂🌺

@kenpelan A whole bunch of different exercises and she changes them a little every week. According to her, my main problem right now is that my muscles retain tension when they are supposed to be relaxed. And apparently kegels would make that problem worse. I do several yoga-ish floor exercises with them weight while tightening the lower abdominal muscles and some different exercises for relaxation.

@topf if PT got rid of Keagle‘s what are you doing now?

With surgery the internal sphincter is removed leaving only the external sphincter left. In some cases even if not damaged during surgery the external sphincter is not strong leading to some level of leakage, sadly with age that muscle get weaker (like all muscles).

@topf

Thanks for the response. Yes, seems like Kegels don’t help much!

Kegels can be counterproductive. You could look for a pelvic floor physical therapist. Should be covered by insurance if you have incontinence. The first thing my PT did was to get rid of the kegels.