Progress Report on Long-Term Incontinence Healing

Very good, this is good. Slow and steady improvements is the way to go!

Thanks, I can't take credit for this being a plan of my own making. It is just the way I am healing. I am posting to provide encouragement to others who might have the same long and slow healing situation. While I thought this would be over in 6 months, the actual time might be double or triple that original estimate.

I always thought of myself as a quick healer. Cuts and scrapes all healed within days. Surgery put that to the ultimate test and I did not realize how long the healing would take.

I do have weeks go by with no change and that causes me to become anxious and think that I have reached a stopping point. The consistent measuring is a double edge sword. I see the times when progress is going nowhere, a concept I would not have know without measuring pads. But on the positive side, measuring when downward movement in pad weight had given me objective data to confirm a vague notion that my pads are lighter and that I am leaking less. Somebody on this forum has to continue the measurement tradition! Seriously, at a teaspoon and 1/2 over a 13 hour work day is not something that provides a lot of physical feedback. I feel a little weeping here and there when I walk or get up quickly. Lost the big spurts that were common months ago.
Mike S.

Jeff: Yes, I plot in excel but do not perform any special statistical modeling to my simple recording of my 13 hour segments. I merely record the date, day of the week, gross weight of the pad after 13 hours of use, the weight of the pad before using it and then the used pad weight minus the unused pad weight. I add notes to mark activities during the day (more walking or standing) Then I just plot net amount of urine output on the y axis and the date on the x axis. I also break out my workdays from my weekends by simple copy and paste of sections of the aggregate data. I like to see if weekends are very different from weekdays and in turn compare it to the entire combined weekdays and weekends. With more activity on weekends my current totals can be 10 to 14 cc for the same 13 hours. However, even those number are starting to fall below 10 cc. I am curious as to how much the pad weight varies when measuring a virgin pad. Tena mens guards can be anywhere from 19 to 21 grams. Depends were the most consistent at around 23 grams per pad.

I think I will have to leave my zero dry date a mystery. First, due to lack of Excel and stat ability to create the trend line. Second, while not a scientific explanation, my rudimentary examination of the data shows me that this healing process has no predictability. It stops and stays the same for a few weeks and then gets a bit worse, then a bit better. I also don't want to have the added burden of worrying that my progress is not meeting the predicted trend line. That is just more anxiety than I need and since I can't do anything about it, why suffer needlessly? I also don't want to skew the data, i.e., wall less or be inactive at times so I get a better leakage outcome at the end of the day. I want to keep activities as close to normal as possible.

It also helped when my doctor suggested that I cut back on fluid intake. Jeff, I was using the model of fluid consumption that you posted. At an average of 72 oz or 1,900 cc per day, my doctor said to drink when thirsty and not in accord with a preset amount of liquid. It has helped to not overload my bladder and leak needlessly. However, old habits never die out quickly and I find I am still coming close to 60+ oz per day.

Just letting nature take its course. Thanks for the encouragement.
Mike S.