leaking

But overall, it was 5 months when I got to just 1-2 pads a day. Many uros seem to accept 1 pad per day as "continent" (mine did), while all of us hope for "leak-free, pad-free". You will see this as LFPF if you want to google the studies - I remember that there was one from Cleveland Clinic, I believe, that discussed what doctors considered "continent".

It did not get better by visible steps day by day, more that just one day I realized I was using less, then things would stay the same a couple of weeks, then another improvement.

One thing I wished I had been able to do more of was walking. I was pretty beaten up, and the first couple of weeks after the catheter was out, I could manage about a quarter of a mile in an hour if I used a cane.

Getting the walking and kegels finally in sync at that 2 month mark made a big difference.

I found a balance that seems associated to a change for the better.

Once I could walk for longer periods, I realized I needed to do multiple walks (such as one morning, one afternoon), rather than do it all at once. That worked well for me (I live in a community with a common mail stop, so I quit stopping if I was driving in at night, and started walking back each evening).

So once (30-45 minutes) morning and evening became the norm.

Then I realized (with some courtesy consults with a physical therapist who works with the hospital where I had my surgery and one of the support groups I frequent) that I was doing too many Kegels, and over too short a time. I was doing 5 sets of 10 a day (Uro's original suggestion), leaking like the end of the world by afternoon, and was working toward more, but her advice was to back down to 4 sets. We finally came to a balance at 3 - 4 sets.

Eventually I worked into a routine -

Morning walk (1 mile +/-)

Morning -1 set of 10 kegels, held 10 seconds each, with 10 seconds relax between each.

Noon - 1 set of 10 kegels, held 10 seconds each, with 10 seconds relax between each.

Mid afternoon - 1 set of 10 kegels, held 10 seconds each, with 10 seconds relax between each.

Late afternoon walk (1 mile +/-)

After the walk, a last set of Kegels.

Within a week things improved significantly. Are the events related? I believe so, but like all of this sort of thing there is no hard and fast proof.

You will see suggestions of 90-100 (10 sets) per day - that did not work for me.

Another valid suggestion appears to be mixing short and long Kegels, meaning sets of 5 - shorter hold (3-5 seconds max), but same 10 seconds rest between) alternated with the long sets. The idea is that there are two sets of muscles involved, and they need different training. I have tried that as well, alternating. No real evidence that it made a difference for me.

Some guys are dry from day 1 without ever having done a single Kegel - that wasn't me.

Post Edited (142) : 1/30/2011 11:30:48 AM (GMT-7)