Running after surgery

In your last post, we all felt 4 weeks post surgery was a little early for RUNNING..I would start of by walking a fast mile and see how that goes..I was able to walk with no problems or leakage..Then, as more healing takes place, pick up the pace slowly, a jog, then mix in a quick burst of speed then slow back down..You are coming off a MAJOR operation...I put a "comfort" seat on my bicycle and find that is great exercise too..At 69, jogging and running is just to hard on the knees and hips..

I am a runner biker and swimmer and I hit the road about 5 weeks after surgery during my radiation and Lupron treatments. Granted it was TOUGH to find the energy to get up and get out but I am sure glad I did.
thanks for the post

peace to you
Dale

There is a wide gulf between 48 and 69..I wish you all the best..But don't hurt yourself trying to help yourself...A HUGE change has been made in your plumbing system and it's going to take a while to heal completely..

Sifgato,

My opinion, and the orders of my surgeon, were to do nothing - NOTHING - no exercise, no driving, no lifting over 5 pounds, with the exception of normal walking, for at least 4 weeks. At 4 weeks, he let me drive, but left the other restrictions in place. At 12 weeks, he raised the lift limit to 10 pounds. At 20 weeks, he said it was time to start normal exercise (upper torso), and jogging if I wanted.

You are pushing it according to those suggestions.

And yes, even walking a half mile without leaking was not possible for me until about three months out. Now, at 14 months, I can get about two miles in without a major leak.

I was 56, and in reasonable health, no pre-surgery issues.

My suggestion is to allow your body to heal first. I was told by my uro/surgeon that the internal stitches don't even start breaking up until 8-10 weeks after surgery, so you are pulling on incisions that aren't healed yet. Don't let the superglue on the skin fool you.

My doctor will not let me even ride a bike until after 3 months. I have a recumbent stationary bike and a recumbent trike. He said no to both. I walk a lot but have still gained weight. A few more weeks and it's back on the bike and trike. I do have 20 years on you and never ran a marathon or prepared for one. I can't imagine being in your shoes and just walking but you do need to heal. Good luck.

If it were me I would error on the side of caution.  Like others have suggested, I would start out walking and see how that goes.

I am 65 and I have been a jogger/walker for over 35 years.  I am 8 months past surgery and I can walk about 2 miles now leaking just a few drops (most days).  When I try to jog I leak more....wearing 1/2 of a Depends Guard pad takes care of it.

I wish you the best and I am wishing I was as dry as you have been.  Take it easy and work up to it very slowly.  You are doing to well to regress by pushing it.  Best of luck!!!!!!

sfigato said... My question is , does it get better, will I ever be able to run without leaking, and is there anything I can do tom improve my chances? Short answers:  yes, and yes.  You are off to a great start, already, and it's only been a month.  You are already ahead of the curve, so to speak, with regard to urinary continence recovery. My experience was this:  Eleven days after my surgery, with my surgeon's permission, I went to the Y and ran on the elliptical trainer (I have re-constructed knees and can't take the pounding of the road).  Similar to you, I went a 2 slow miles on that first day.  Different from you, I had the minimally invasive surgery which has small incisions, so my physical recover would naturally be faster than yours after your open surgery.  Either way, we both had major surgery, and it takes a while to recover energy levels and appetites. The general rule of thumb after minimally invasive prostatectomy (and the specific instructions of my surgeon) were to avoid abdominal exercises until 6-weeks.  With his approval, I started doing core exercises at the 6-week point, and I hired a personal trainer for 30-minute sessions starting week-7.  Generally, the recovery period is longer for open prostatectomy...please do consult your doctor on his specific restrictions for you. Kegel exercises, as you may know, do accelerate one's time to full continence recovery.  What I did with the trainer was to work Kegels into my core workout routine .  As a generalized example, I would "clinch" the Kegel, do a "crunch & return", release the Kegel, then repeat.  Once I started doing this, I moved to full continence fairly quickly (I can't remember, but I think it was about 4 or 5 weeks later). You should be ready to run Chicago on Oct 9, 2011.  My wife ran it in 2009 with a grapefruit-sized tumor (unbeknownst to her) in her belly. edit :   clairfy Post Edited (Casey59) : 1/7/2011 12:15:06 PM (GMT-7)

On thing to remember: even though we may have a 5 inch incision or 6 holes punched in us, we still have the same cutting and stitching inside. The same organs were removed, in a fairly similar manner. Those precise alignments and oh-so delicate stitching holding us together is the same. That should be the worry about causing damage and reversing the doctors careful operating skills. If we spend months selecting the best doctor, with the great amount of skill recommended, then why would we want to risk it all by premature and ill-advised attempts to return to our normal exercise/activites soon after surgery? Why anyone would risk that for some tempory gains of well-being is beyond my understanding. Sometimes we need to say no to our complusions, as usually we only get one chance at a complete healing and recovery. This is an area that needs to be decided after careful consultation with the surgeon and following his recommendations to the letter. Even then, if I felt he was rushing things, I would wait until I was comfortable with the idea of safety. I'm just saying.......your mileage may vary..., etc. Just my opinion....

It'd been nice if you had told us that little tidbit earlier...Now I feel like an idiot, oh well, not a new feeling for me...