leakyfaucet said...
I am 6 months post DiVinci. The current prognosis by the medical community for continence is that it might take three to eighteen months. I have my doubts. My doc said my cancer was aggressive, although successful, as demonstrated by 3 and 6 month PSA at less than 0.01 so far. I have three close friends who all were dry or almost dry by three months. At the same time I see hundreds of posts by men using 4 or more pads 18 months and three, five and mor years later.
Here is my question. Are there any of you who dried up after 6, 12 or 18 months. I have yet to see any posts who describe improving over the thee to eighteen month perood. I either see dry by three or tears for years.
Thanks hope to hear differently
leakyfaucet said...
Sorry to be redundant, but I am searching for confirmation of anyone who dried up after 6 months
Yes, me, or at least almost completely.
leakyfaucet said...
My insistance is because I want to lnow if I should wait the 18 months, or go ahead with the Advance Sling now instead of waiting and habing to do it a year older. ( age 70)
I was mentally ready for my sling or AUS by 6 months, I was sure I would need one despite my surgeons assurance.
I was miserable for more than 6 months. At least I was dry when down, but when standing or especially walking, it would just pour right out of me. Now, I could always stop it with a Kegal squeeze, but you can't Kegal but for so long.
I had some biofeedback/electrostim treatments, I'm not sure how much they helped, maybe they did. I started the treatments before a trip to Europe at 3 or 4 months and continued treatments when I got back. Though the trip was very unpleasant as I was constantly straining to hold it in while walking/touring and trying to find elusive bathrooms, I decided afterwards that the trip was good for me as I seem to improve a good bit after I returned. Then a more gradual improvement over the next 6 months until I would occasionally go without even the small pads and would usually get away with it. I think after that I have continued to make very gradual improvements over the 2nd year, so that I only wear a small pad if I am going out somewhere, like church, and even then the pad almost always FEELS quite dry when I remove it.
I doubt I will ever be 100%, but I am probably 90-95%, which is something I can live with and I will probably never seek surgery for this small amount. Very often I do my 2 mile walk or even hike off trail in the woods(that used to soak me) with no pad. I come back either dry, or worst case a drop or 2 escape. First few months of all of this, I wondered if I would always be having to consciously squeeze closed/Kegal(sp?) when up and moving. Now I often catch myself hiking or standing with no conscious effort being made to hold things in, and I am dry. Most of the time anyway.
So yes, you can see significant recovery after 6 months or even a year. Two bothersome problems remain for me at 22 months. Climacturia, urine squirting or leaking during sex. Or even a small leak if just having a sexual thought while standing. But sex is pretty much a thing of the pre-surgery past anyway, so that is not a huge problem practically speaking. Although, admittedly, Climacturia is one of several contributing factors to end of sex life.
The other problem is something I realize, in retrospect, was a major contributor to the problem from the 1st: Spasms. (I have thought of starting a thread just for this). I assume bladder spasms, but who knows. This is my biggest remaining problem. I can be standing there, or walking, and most often if I get up from certain chairs. Then about
30 seconds later, I feel muscles starting to contract. It feels like in the base of my penis. And urine is on it's way out. Now if I am quick enough on the squeeze, I can always stop it. If not quick enough, a drop or two will escape before I can stop it. But once this starts to happen, even though I can easily stop it, unless I empty- usually just a very small amount- it is going to contract again very soon, and again. And I best find a place to go even if I just squeeze out a very small amount. That is my biggest problem after almost 2 years, but I now realize that was a big part of the problem in the 1st miserable 6+ months. My muscles were always pretty strong I think, as from the minute the catheter came out I could hold a full bladder by kegeling even easily stopping a full bladder mid stream. But despite that, if up and walking, I had a tremendous feeling that I was about
to wet myself, only prevented by constant Kegeling. I now realize that was spasms just like I have now, Except, what is a brief and easily controlled 3 or 4 times a day event now was my very hard to control all day companion for over 6 months. Hope all this helps.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 12/27/2015 9:59:10 PM (GMT-7)