Post catheter removal help

Hi everyone and happy holidays.

I am now three days post catheter removal and again have questions I hope someone can address. I wear pads throughout the day and leaking pretty quickly. At night, I have urges and go to relieve myself and most times make it if I squeeze shut my penis until I make it to the toilet. Then I pee OK. I use one pad at night and it still wet. I have penis pain but getting better, almost like a phantom catheter pain. I assume the pain will pass.

My question is that when I try to go during the day, it almost feels like I am about to go but feel blocked, maybe my bladder is empty. I I still don't feel the urge to go during the day, pad does get wet often. I am afraid that the penis pain masks my urges to go and I then miss them. Will this resolve with time?

Sorry for the vague description but its the best I can do. Thanks a lot guys.

First thing is to be sure you call your uro/surgeon with any questions - they should be there for you, especially just after surgery. This is not the time to "man-up and bear it".

I didn't have a lot of issues at night, but as soon as I stood up, I emptied. There was no "making it to the can", so I kept a bucket by the bed, just in case. I had no feeling of holding anything during the day (and that was because it was all draining - I was at 8 or more pads per day as boosters for a depends pant.

Be sure you are walking at least a little, several times a day, and that you get in a couple of sets of Kegels after each walk. I found that spreading both over the day worked best.

Also, you'll probably find (I did, and others have reported the same) that soon after you've emptied the bladder, you feel you need to go again. My uro says that it is the bladder reacting to the first bit of urine that comes in. That was the point at which I backed off on all the known bladder irritants. He also had me drink more water (seems contradictory, but more water means less intense urine, so less irritation).

It will get better with time. I understand the soggy feeling all too well.

You do just need to give it some time.

Not to discourage you, but the average time is somewhere around 3 or 4 months. A rare few are continent immediately, and some take a year. A few never achieve full continence.

Your progress thus far sounds very normal. Be faithful with your kegals, but don't over do them. When you are peeing, stop and start your stream. If you can stop it, you know what a proper kegal should feel like.

I think sometimes the stress of fretting about it, and trying too hard can hinder recovery.

Good luck, give your body some time to heal.

Keep up with daily walking (within your tolerance and assuming that your surgeon wants you to, as most do.)

I leak more when actually walking seriously, but I've kept up with it pretty well and leaks when not actually out walking fast/long are getting less. Once in a while I can even hold it in when I cough. 9th week post/8 since catheter.

I think the penis pain is (from what I read, having had some myself) probably bladder spasms left over from the catheter irritating the bladder, or perhaps the bladder being irritated where it's healing. They did go away for me.

Likewise, the seemingly counter-intuitive advice to drink more is spot on- dilute urine irritates the bladder less, concentrated urine irritates it more.

Exercise rest exercise rest. Actually more of the rest I found worked despite my keenness to get back to full mobility, continence, etc etc. Once I stopped pushing so hard on the walks and just spent a few days holed up with sleeps during day suddenly the continence returned over a few short weeks. For me Weeks 9 - 12 were dramatic improvement but we're all different. You are so soon after removal that it's impossible to know if your recovery is proceding faster or slower than 4 month average mentioned.