RRP recovery

Very common, I am afraid. You are only 16 days of of a major and complex surgery. Welcome here, and keep us posted, and ask all the questions you want.

David in SC

It took me 5 weeks to be completely dry following my Robotic surgery.

Kegels is one thing you should be doing. Walking as long as you can and as often as you can is another, you cannot urinate while you are walking so its a great Kegel like exercise

I am six weeks out on my RALP and just starting to feel a little normal. I still have stress incontinence and occasional blood and old blood flakes. I'm a runner and have started back running this week which has helped my head and otherwise. Urinating still seems a little weird especially right at the end of the pee cycle...but its getting better. I still don't believe what I read about guys getting total continence and hard-ons right after the catheter is pulled out...but I guess we can always dream. I'm scheduled to get GPS markers stuck in me next week for my next phase of my journey on the Calypso (reminds me of Jacques Costeau).
regards, <bobr>
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Age: 54
Routine Physical on 10-20-2010 DRE Normal
PSA 4.3, up from 0.6 5 years prior
PSA 0.6 on 10-25-2005
PSA 0.4 on 7-30-2004
PSA 0.5 on 5-9-2002
Followup with Urologist on 11/10/2010 after elevated PSA; DRE noted slight bump
November 30th, 2010 had prostate biopsy.
December 9th, 2010, Biopsy results 3 of 12 cores positive.
LLB: Gleason's 4+3=7, 11 MM Tumor Length/15MM Core Length (73%)
LLM: Gleason's 4+4=8, 12 MM Tumor Length/15MM Core Length (75%)
LM: 0.1 MM Tumor Length (1%)0.1 MM Tumor Length
Urologist recommended robotic removal using da Vinci method.
RALP Surgery 12/27/2010 Released: 12/30/2010
Thunderbird Banner Hospital, Glendale, AZ
Post-Surgery Pathology: GS 4+5=9
Pathologic Staging: pT3a, N0, MX; location: Left Side; Volume: 10%
Margins: Left posterior inked margin focally involved
Extraprostatic Extension: Observed
Seminal vesicles: Not observed
Lymphatic/Vascular Invasion: Not observed
Catheter: Removed 15-days after surgery

Post-OP Followup on 1/11/2011; Catheter/Staples removed
Adjuvant IMRT 8 Weeks Post-OP.
No exercise for 4 Weeks Post-OP.

Radiation Oncologist Initial Consultation on 1/18/2011

Flytyer2 says: "Isn't it great that we've been given a new lease on life."

You got that right!

Da Slink, on your drying up question I made some comments in your other thread on this --- suffice here to say it's early days, very early days. Ask yourself if you can tolerate this for 6 months? Of course you can. So, just set any worries about control aside for 180 days. I asked myself if I could live the rest of my life running like a fawcet and decided I could. Easily. Dealing with constantly changing pads would be an inconvenience, and if I went on a two week cruise I'd have to take along an extra suit case to pack pads in, but I'd do fine. Life was a lot more fun when I quit worrying about it and decided either Mother Nature was going to deal with it, or she wasn't, and either way my getting my knickers in a knot about it wasn't going to make a whit of difference.

Sheldon AKA Sleepless
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You may have a long road ahead of you.  I was in your same position at this point in your recovery.  I allowed myself to get very depressed over the issue as there seemed to be no relief in sight.  My Dr. wrote me a prescription for a clamp which I found to be very helpful for getting out & doing things.  I started walking 3 to 4 times a day.  It seemed that the depression wasn't nearly as bad when I was outside.  The flip side is that if I went walking for 45 minutes, I would have to find some place to change my pad during that walk.  For the first 12 weeks I went through 6 to 10 pads a day.  Somehere around 6 months post RP I was down to 3 to 5 pads a day.  By one year I was down to about 2 pads a day.  At 14 months, my PSA had gone from undetectable 6 weeks after surgery to .3 so I had to arrange for radiaition.  Ironically, just as I started the daily treatments, my pad usuage went to 1 pad a day.  For the last 20 days straight, I never went through more than 1 pad a day & sometimes the pad is almost dry.  I tried biofeedback 10 weeks after surgery & found that my muscles just could not hold when I tried to kegel.  Honestly, over the months, I pretty much gave up on kegels.  Now, I am starting to do them again to try to get rid of that last pad.  I have 6 more radiation treatments & then I'll be waiting to find out if the radiation treatments have cured me.  My point is, never give up.  Each guy is different & you just don't know what will happen.  These changes in pad usuage that I have reported just seemed to come on with no notice.  On the positive side I had my first decent erection just 17 days after surgery.  Many times in the last year, I would have traded the erections success for no incontinence.  Now, I guess I am happy that trade did not happen.  I never thought I would be happy using 1 pad a day, but it really is not bad.  I no longer have to stuff my pockets with spare pads & worry about accidents.  Hopefully, the radiation will not cause incontinence problems for me.  Never, never give up!

Oh, I forgot one of the most important points.  I kept reading posts from guys that were dry right after surgery & I guess I felt inferior because I could not achieve the same results.  Gradually I learned that there is no sure thing in this disease.  Each of us is very different & there is a lot about this disease that none of the doctors understand nor can explain.  I consider myself lucky to have a surgeon who was honest enough to tell me when he did not know how things were going to turn out.