Regaining Bladder Control

hi paul,

 i'm not qualified to answer your question because like most I only had my cath in for 8days and had relatively few issues that have worked there way out. but it seems to me without using your sphincter muscles in a month it could take a little time. I attribute my lack of incontinence issues to the fact that my wife and I have walked 5 miles a day for years now (since the kids were in their teens), so maybe some walking and keegles will help. hopefully somebody that has had there cath in as long as yours will be along soon with some more qualified advice.

good-luck carl    

 

..Waorgany, Glad you got that catheter out, a month is a bit longer than usual. I had mine in about 10 days and it took me around 10 weeks to gain enough control to feel normal. I did a mile walk every day after catheter was removed and leaked plenty but kept at it. I noticed at night while sleeping I did not leak but awoke to pee often. I also noticed that I was able to hold it while sitting with feet elevated. It was definitely a process and at times I felt it would never end. Still have stress leaking at times with a dribble here and a dribble there but holding till full seems to be getting better still. I would just hold it as long as I could as an exercise, did some kegels but not to much, just enough for me. After thought is to keep an eye on the Positive Margins from your pathology report..

..Stay positive and onward we go, stay well...
..............Appleseed, Nick.....

I had the open surgery. I had complete urinary control as soon as the catheter was removed; I think it was 14 days, I don't quite remember as it was 5 years ago.

Paul,

I'm dry most nights -- after 8 weeks! One pad a day with less than 5g of pee. I measure my pads. I've also given myself at least 5-6 months. I don't do Kegels much; I pee more on the days i do them. Hand in there mate, it does get better. I can cough without any leakage, but sneezing still causes a drip or two.

warm regards,
Dot

Paul- As others have said, every man is different. I was overweight and out of shape at the time of my surgery, so recovery was slow and rough. Started to eat right and exercise, lost 30 pounds,but still took me a year to get 98% continent. For the last 3 years I only have a problem when I drink too much alcohol or get sexually aroused. Regards Inkhorn

16 months and counting and I still use 2-3 pads a day. I have done it all, Kegels, Pelvic Floor Therapy, going without pads at home to retrain my brain. Nothing works. At this point I am not considering additional surgery to FIX the problem. Sometimes I don't like it but I can tolerate it.
When I hear you guys say that you are continent right after the catheter is removed or several weeks later, it kills me but I know that was the chance I took.

Good for you if you are continent, consider yourself fortunate, you could be me.

A guy who had his surgery a couple of hours after me by the same surgeon was continent in a few weeks so each person is different.
I had a large tumor, maybe that had something to do with it pressing up against the bladder for years.

People like Pete A. and I are rare but we are out there. I would rather be dealing with pads than still dealing with PCa. At least I am still undetectable. Many guys here are having a harder fight than me so God bless them!

So if you are keeping score, count me as still soggy in So Florida.

Bill from Florida

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and support. Did about 15 minutes on the elliptical this am, will add another 5-10 minutes everyday until I reach 1 to 1.5 hours and got from there, too much snow for walking outside! Can also do some treadmill too. Out shopping with my wife today so put on some miles. Had a few small success today and was angle to feel the need and make it a few times to empty, but still on # who knows on soaked generic depends! almost ran out and had to make strip to SAMs club to stock up! hope. I won't need them all. Thanks again for all the posts, I know it just takes time! but ready to get life back to what ever normal looks like again. All the best, have a great weekend.

There's good advice in this thread, thanks!

Paul

Had my RALP on 11/26. I am also experiencing "dribble" plus I get up multiple times a night. From what I have read on the boards here, that's to be expected. Maybe that's why they called us the "patient?" ;-)

So this week things have remained pretty much the same, I void when ever my bladder wants to and have little to no control over this process, so here is my delima. I am in the final stages of obtaining a new job. This has been a process that has been on going longer than I had any idea that I even knew I had PCa. It has been almost a year now. I had to have a physical for this job this week. This includeded a urinalysis test..Yeap and it was the last thing I had to do! So much to my amazement, through the entire process, poking, proding, this test and that and I am just peeing left and right in my man pants. So when it comes time for the big show, I get maybe 1/4 of the size of the needed sample into the container...this pretty much is a show stopper and they can't go any further in my hiring process with out two things now, a good full pee sample and a note from my doc that says I am cleared to work. The later is no issue, asked for received and done. The sample is another story!

So here is what I have done and plan...

I searched for penis clamps on Amazon since I couldn't find anything local. I read the reviews and figured that the Wiesner Incontenence clamp looked the lest torcharess and was like $40, so I use my wives Amazon Prime account and it's here in two days. I open the box and am scared to death it goes where and does what?

Wife returns home and tell her it came and she said do you have it on? Oh know I didn't want to kill myself yet! So we have a movie date night planned and ths is the chance to try it out. So before we go out I clamp it down and give it a try. Not as bas as I expected so I wear it a while before we leave and decide to wear it out to try it! and I can remove if needed. I evacuate urine once before we go and away. We get to the movies and have a funny feeling and urge to pee so I go huge stream. So we watch the movie 2.5 hours, pee again before we leave, when we get home I remove it.

I think that this will work to wear for my pee test, clamp it on fill up with water travel to the test site, and sample complete.

Now a few things that I notice for the use of this device? I am sure that it is not, I hope the answer and I need to continue to regain normal bladder control, and I continue to do my kegels and walking. However, last night I went to bed as normal without said clamp and my man pants an towel on the bed for back up, at about 10:30 asleep about 11:30, I woke up around 3:30 and felt dry but had a urge to pee. So I clamp down! squeeze and stand up get to the bath room, pee, stop, pee and my depend is pretty dry!

Is it possible that by just wearing this clamp for a few hours that I was able to stretch my bladder enough to hold more urine to allow me to keep control of my urine for longer periods of time? I can oly hope so. I will see how the weekend goes, but this is a small victory in my book that I figured I needed to share with you all. Thanks as always for the great support on here. All the best, have a great weekend, and if your in the NE lok us stay home the ice is very bad!

Clanda,

Thanks so far so good, for the last few hours, I am drinking my water, watching the news, and have gotten up and peed on my own a few times with only a few dribbles...if this was they key to success they should do a study on it or tests or something! I am sure if nothing else, it sure has like you said help me mentally!!! Because the past week and a half since my cath was removed after a month was miserable to say the least. thanks again