Incontinence after Ralp. Am I doing it right or overdoing excercise

I had to wear thick pads for about three months after RALP and I think that is fairly common so I'm pretty sure your situation is normal. Time will bring improvement, but it probably seems to you that its taking forever. Its not possible for you to know what your eventual urinary continence will be but from what I've learned here it seems most guys are pretty satisfied with the RALP results. The walking is a very good idea so keep it up. In my case, I am now three years out from RALP and continent almost all of the time. The frustrating thing is that I do still have occasional small leaks so I have to wear a thin pad all the time, just in case. Considering how things used to be before the robotic surgery techniques that's really a pretty minor issue. So, patience.

Normal, Harry. You've got a good routine, keep it up. Superfrustrating how slow the early progress is, just power through it. There'll be bad days when you feel like you're slipping back, don't let them get you down. Look for progress over the long term, from month to month. I was in a very similar place as you at 4 weeks. It's now 11 months since my RP and I'm continent. Still carry pads with me just in case, but haven't used one in weeks. No guarantee you'll get there, too, but there's plenty of reason to be optimistic.

Got to continence at about 8 months except for extreme straining. You are right on track. Don't use any pad at all at 11 months. Occasional tiny leak.

The important thing is that you notice progress. I also found walking is the most problematic activity, together with drinking alcohol. But you should keep walking. (I kept my moderate intake of alcohol as well, though I am not exactly sure if it was of any help). My strategy was to try to do everything as similar as I did before surgery.
In my case, I was always continent when sitting or in bed, and I was continuously noticing some progress when walking. I weighted the pads every day to have an objective ideea of this progress. It took me about two months from cath removal to be pad-free. I hope you will forget this problem soon as well.

Here are some numbers to help you set your expectations. They are based on my vague impressions of research papers I have read and forgotten. Some doctors claim to do better. Maybe. But these are probably close for the total population of doctors and patients.

Percentages of men with major incontinence after RP

At catheter removal: 95 %
after 1 month: 75 %
after 3 months: 33 %
after 1 year: 11 %
after corrective surgery: 2 %

Physical therapy, for men who seek it, usually starts somewhere around the three month mark. The three months is time to heal after surgery. Physical therapy tends to pull in the dates quite a bit and improves the overall numbers a little.

If you glance at my signature you will see that I am in that last 2%. I still leak significantly after having an artificial sphincter installed. But the operation helped a lot. I can now load up my back pockets with enough inside-the-underwear pads for the whole day. Before the operation I had to carry a bag of pull-ups when I was out and about.

Again thanks to everyone for your encouragement.
Thanks to Peter for the rough figures and the information that healing only completes at 3 months.
The leak volumes go up and down day by day and particularly up in the evenings.
I have purchased a cheap digital scale which sits in the bathroom and I weigh my pads and enter on a simple spreadsheet on my phone. It is only 2 weeks since I started measuring, today is the end of week 2. The weekly weight has dropped from 1740g last week to 1380g this week, so I guess that is an improvement, even though at times it does not feel like it.

Vince,

You are probably right. Probably. Of course, if you weighed your pads for a few weeks and kept notes about your activity you would know how much things you do affect your leaking. I weighed mine for several months and was able to determine, for instance, that coffee/no-coffee and alcohol/no-alcohol made no difference whatsoever for me. That was useful to know.

I found that while activity levels do add some noise to the signal it was easy to pick out trends (or the lack thereof) if I graphed several months of data.

Weighing your pads is easier than you think. You need to buy one of those little scales that street-corner entrepreneurs use to sell semi-professional pharmaceuticals in convenience store parking lots. If you do an amazon search for "pocket scale 0.01 g" you'll find a nice selection at very affordable prices. Then, every time you change a pad you use the new pad to set the tare on the scale then weigh the used pad and write the results in a small notepad.

I am doing similar to Peter with my spreadsheet on my phone. I am keeping notes about activity and a stressful problem I am having with a builder that has badly ripped us off. It is very clear that on days I have to consult with the lawyer at length that my pad weights go up dramatically - not while I am sitting but as soon as I get up.
My scale cost $10 and I only look at the weekly weights as suggested on this forum. Anything more would be subject to all the variables of daily activity differences. I just need something to get a (hopefully) positive attitude that things will improve.

Harry when I started doing the Kegles (post surgery) I found it most effective to do them lying down with an empty bladder. I never read any instruction regarding whether it is preferable to do them sitting or laying down, however I do know that when you want a strong tight muscle vs a strong long muscle you decrease the range of motion. It seemed to me that the pelvic floor muscles should be exercised when they are the least stretched, i.e. when you have an empty bladder and there is no downward pressure on the muscles. I don’t have any science to back this up only my own results, 99% continent after about 3-4 months post surgery. Maybe I was just lucky.

Another technique I used was to kegle consciously when getting up out of a seat, lifting something, coughing, etc. When I started working out 8 weeks after surgery I also kegled anytime I was straining. After a while the conscious kegeling became unconscious. Good luck.