Frequent bathroom trips

Hi Friends,

My catheter was removed 6 days ago. Last night I had to get up and pee 9 times from midnight to 9 am. The total amount was about 1 liter . Am I drinking too much too late, is my bladder still not stretched back to normal, has anyone else been thru these symptoms? . So far the incontinence  is still not too bad, and everything else appears willing to to work in time. My Da Vinci surgery was 12 days ago. Thanks for your help, Wes

I didn't need to get up every hour after surgery, but honestly I still have to get up several times a night even now. But, I was getting up several times a night before the surgery, so I think that maybe some of this is related to conditioning. The only difference now, is the urgency isn't as bad. I wake up and know I need to go...but if I don't feel like it, I can go back to sleep for awhile longer.

I would imagine it will get better for you as time goes on. Like STW says...retraining the bladder to hold more is the first step, then gaining control of incontinence will be the next step. It takes awhile so don't become discouraged.

You've had a fair amount of trauma in that area, so there will be some swelling that will take time to go away. Patience...

It is also possible over time to "train" your bladder. Someone posted a link to an article by a British organization (sorry, I've lost the link) with suggestions like: when you first notice the urge to go, make it a habit to wait X minutes before you do (where X is a number that increases over time); and, set a target for the number of times you go per day, and work to meet it.

I'm now 6 months post-surgery (story in the link in my signature) and still improving in this department.

Good luck.

Greetings, Wes.  Just a couple of thoughts from a similar experience.  Post surgery I was getting up every couple of hours to urinate.  I mentioned it to my surgeon and he said sometimes the bladder has concave places from the presurgery prostate pushing on it.  He gave me a med called Detrol LA to relax the bladder.  Almost immediately, I was down to 1 or 2 times a night.  Not perfect, but much better than 5 or 6 times a night.

Also, try to cut out as much caffine as possible and not to drink a lot in the evening.  You need to drink lots of liquids but do it earlier in the day and non-caffinated as much as possible.  I cut out nearly all caffine for awhile.  I am back to drinking a couple of cups of coffee in the early morning, but then switching to decaf if I drink more coffee. 

Congratulations on successful surgery - that is great news!  David