Pattern of regaining continence

Mt, I have had almost the exact same pattern at 6 months.  No leakage while lying down or sitting, but as soon as I stood up I'd start to leak, and if I started walking I'd lose all control.  This was despite doing Kegels regularly.  The muscles simply were not strong enough to keep the urethra closed when there was any stress at all.

For me, it's taken nearly a year to get to the point where I can walk without leaking. 

I remember that at six months I was seriously thinking about a sling or other surgical intervention, but now I'm glad I waited.  Give it another 6-12 months, keep doing the kegels, and you will almost certainly see improvement.  Hang in there!

         Jeff

 

Mt Runner,

I was one of the very lucky ones here, I was able to stay dry 2 1/2 weeks after the snake was removed. However if you read through the threads here you will find that many in here do not stay dry until months after surgery and it can take a year or more to get fully continent. The only normal here is that there is no normal as it seems that every one has different experiences with continence. Just give it more time before you make any rash decisions for treatments that can not be reversed.  Good luck and you should be getting many more responses from your PC brothers in this forum.

Terry the water guy.

I was dry at night immediately (with a random flood at night once or twice a month even now), but still flowing pretty freely during the day at three months. It was five months before I could go without the depends pant. At two years out I am still on one to two pads a day.

Have you talked to the uro about how you are doing the Kegels? It was explained to me that you can exercise a lot, stop the flow, and still be working the wrong ones. I talked to a physical therapy nurse early on about that. They should be able to hook you up to a machine (literally) to test if the right muscles are involved.

Also, you can do too many, and actually leave the muscles worse off by the end of the day.

Terry,

I can tell you never travelled to some of those countries where a cavity search is part of clearing customs

A DRE is one of the lesser indignities I've suffered.

MtRunner,

For those of us who do not recover continence quickly, your experience seems to be fairly normal. Continence at night happened quickly for me. I did spend a month or two when I got up at night holding my penile opening shut to prevent leakage on the way to the bathroom, but that too eventually became unnecessary. Continence while seated came pretty quickly after that but having to use the same technique on the way to the bathroom to urinate. While away from home, however, I had to deal with leakage while standing/moving.

I am now almost 14 months out of surgery and still have some leakage while standing/walking. I went to physical therapy around 3 months post surgery for Kegel exercise training and was given ancillary exercises to do. Those exercises did help somewhat but not enough after 3 months to continue physical therapy and I was referred to a urologist whose specialty was treating incontinence. I had a urodynamics test at 11 months post surgery after having been on Vesicare and Imipramine (50 mg/day) for about three months. The urologist said that the injection of bulking agents would be a good option for me, but I decided to wait at least until the one year mark before doing any intervention hoping I would regain continence with no intervention. He said that waiting was a good option but in his experience he found that most patients did not see significant improvement after the one year mark...you need to be close to where you want to be at the one year mark and then hope for some slight improvement. I did consult with another physical therapist and she gave me some suggestions about some exercises but did not feel that another round with a physical therapist was really necessary.

I am now within a week of l4 months post RRP and am still leaking while standing/moving. Mostly it is a dribble and not a squirt. If I am sitting and my bladder feels with an urgency to urinate. I can walk around the house for 15-20 minutes with no leaks, but on a empty bladder I guess I don't get that signal to hold urine in and the dribble occurs. I am now down to one pad most days but to me that is one too many. I cannot drink alcohol in any form; otherwise the floodgates open. I also keep caffeine intake to a minimum. I watched an MSK video and the success rate quoted for bulking agent injections is quite low. I plan to consult another incontinence specialist before I decide on any intervention if or when I decide that waiting is useless.

Sparkit,

When I first returned to work, I wore a pad and kept a couple extra pads in my backpack along with a change of underwear and slacks just in case. (Never had to use the latter thank goodness.) Never had an issue. If I had to change a pad, I would do it in the bathroom or even in my office (with the door closed!). I kept a small trash bag for the used pad and took it home so I would not have to throw it in the trash at work. I wore somewhat loose fitting slacks for the pad and for the fact I had open surgery and was still sore. Finally, one day I was brave enough to go padless to work. I still kept the spare items in my backpack for a while before dispensing with those as well.

 

Oops, sorry about all the typos. I suppose that's what I get for not proof reading. :)

You might want to check out this forum.

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1670142

My wife found the clams and I'm glad she did. I have saved a lot of frustration and money with the clamp. I no longer buy a package of pads and or depends every week.
The clam is a RELIEF!