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Night Time Incontinence Years After Robotic Prostatectomy

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Posted Today 1:46 PM (GMT 0)
Hello gentleman...

It's been many years since I've posted here and a little jarring to be back in some ways.

My return is based on my inablity to find anything via googling on night time incontinence years down the road.

Everything went about as well as could be expected for me back in 2013 when I had the procedure. No incontinence except for some minor stress incontinence.

Now, over 5 years later if I eat the wrong things too late at night, I'll have major urinary incontinence while sleeping. It's very sporadic. Could be weeks with no issues, and then suddenly a couple of nights during a week, it's a total loss of urinary control at night. I don't understand why? I also feel like I have a UTI sometimes with some accompanying stinging feeling.

Has anyone else dealt with this? I was in much better shape back during the surgery than I am 5 years later. I was a chronic exerciser back then and have become pretty sedentary after going through some things that make prostate cancer look minor in comparision. I'm not sure if some of trauma I've experienced coupled with the sedentary/depressive lifestyle I've chosen is to blame or if there's something else?

Perhaps, I just need to go into boot camp and get back into shape and these random issues at night will stop?

Anyone with any advice or any similar experience would be helpul. Every single time this happens at night, it's very upsetting and a reminder of something not pleasant. Hoping to make this go away "for good" but am horrified that as years go by it'll only worsen.

Thank you, gentleman.

Post Edited (Inchoation) : 11/29/2018 7:17:28 AM (GMT-7)

Posted Today 3:51 PM (GMT 0)
What's up bro I made it 11 months and I was one pad but then some nights as you say I would just run put a big spot in the bed and when I get in and out of my car I will squirt pretty good couldn't been down without holding myself in the pad so with these issues I didn't think I would try to go 5 more years and hope to get better so I opted for the advanced sling I had the procedure last Tuesday it was hard to urinate so I had to go back and let my urologist loosen it a little so I'm sitting here with the catheter in right now it comes out tomorrow hoping I can urinate a little better but as 1 week I have wore no pads had a little leakage one time after I urinated I believe didn't realize it so I really didn't know when it happened but I look at it like this it can only help I read a lot of post of people having excessive pain with this procedure but I'm doing fine I said if it's a chance to get out of pads or just control incontinence better I will take it so that was my direction hope you get better or try to do something.
Posted Today 4:08 PM (GMT 0)

Inchoation said...
... the sedentary/depressive lifestyle I've chosen is to blame or if there's something else?

Perhaps, I just need to go into boot camp and get back into shape and these random issues at night will stop?



Put it this way...if you don't fix these things, your incontinence has little chance of recovering. Excercise makes your body and muscles stronger (and your mind sharper). Are you thinking that weak pelvic muscles are helping?

Killing your sedentary lifestyle is necessary, although it may not be sufficient...but if you aren't willing to take step #1, then not much we can offer in terms of help other than "good luck." Check back in a month...
Posted Today 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
Not directly like your situation but close enough. I had surgery 12 years ago at age 58. Continent at removal of catheter. After ten years I started having occasional leakage. Standing and fatigue were related to this in every case. Lots of walking, poor sleep and it was nearly certain. Mostly drips and short squirts but enough to use a pad occasionally. I now know enough to carry a pad and if the conditions are likely to make for trouble I put it in my undies. I consider it a factor of aging and loss of some muscle tone. Just another indignity. Night is not the problem for me.
Posted Today 4:19 PM (GMT 0)

Blackjack said...



Put it this way...if you don't fix these things, your incontinence has little chance of recovering. Excercise makes your body and muscles stronger (and your mind sharper). Are you thinking that weak pelvic muscles are helping?

Killing your sedentary lifestyle is necessary, although it may not be sufficient...but if you aren't willing to take step #1, then not much we can offer in terms of help other than "good luck." Check back in a month...

That's kind of a caustic reply.

Am I thinking that weak pelvic muscles are helping? What do you think? Of course not.

I'm just taken aback that issues I thought were over years ago could be back. I didn't realize that continued maintenace was required post op to keep these issues at bay. If they were gone years ago and I wasn't all that much more active than I am now why would they comeback years later? It wouldn't be happening at all minus the procedure.

Your in your face response may as well be used for motivation. This is not the kind of answer I expected on this forum and I don't recall ever reading one like it in the months I was here many years ago but thanks, brother.

Post Edited (Inchoation) : 11/29/2018 9:23:15 AM (GMT-6)

Posted Today 4:33 PM (GMT 0)
Any chance that alcohol could be playing a role? I found that even modest drinking could produce a night-time flood. I've cut way back on drinking, which keeps me much dryer, and its good for me otherwise, too.
Posted Today 5:13 PM (GMT 0)

Inchoation said...

Your in your face response may as well be used for motivation.


I hope so, brother.

"good luck"
Posted Today 7:18 PM (GMT 0)

fiddlecanoe said...
Any chance that alcohol could be playing a role? I found that even modest drinking could produce a night-time flood. I've cut way back on drinking, which keeps me much dryer, and its good for me otherwise, too.

Nope. I've never had a drink in my life.

I just wanted this to be something that was one and done. Have surgery work hard on making sure the issues that could crop up were dealt with and move on. That's what I did. For a few years after surgery everything was glorious.

Now, lately, it feels like I'm back going through the intiial stages in many regards and that's troubling. I don't do testing. I've had one test in the last 4+ years last summer. I want this distant in the rear view but I guess there's more to it than just the scars as reminders.

The diagnosis was one of the best things to ever happen to me. It woke me up. I'll have to wake up without it this time around.

Thanks for the replies on sling surgeries and anyone else who took the time to respond.

This is just like the overweight person who is told that diet and exercise are the answer. They don't want to hear that. They want some easy road but you get what you work for not what you wish for.
Posted Today 7:29 PM (GMT 0)
This far from surgery, it could be anything/everything or just getting older. You have to watch for what triggers this and avoid it. Walking, kegels, plenty of water, are the other self care things you can do.

You might be having a few UTI that clear up on their own.

A conversation with your URO/PCP might be in order. I wouldn't think that a sling is needed at this point.

Andrew
Posted Today 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
Survival, and just getting older....I'd suspect.

Getting into a serious exercise and weight loss program can only help. No drinking water after maybe 6 PM but lots of it before, start up the Kegels again, and walk, walk, walk.

We should all be as lucky as you when it comes to PCa.
Posted Today 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
Inchoation, it may or may no/t apply, but about 2 years after being fully continent after surgery, I had one or two instances of waking up to wetting myself. My Dr Sid “I bet it happens only in nights where you had a tough day and were very tired. He was right. So just a thought, maybe observe to that point.
Posted Today 10:06 PM (GMT 0)

Pratoman said...
Inchoation, it may or may no/t apply, but about 2 years after being fully continent after surgery, I had one or two instances of waking up to wetting myself. My Dr Sid “I bet it happens only in nights where you had a tough day and were very tired. He was right. So just a thought, maybe observe to that point.

You know what. Ding, ding, ding. I've been experiencing random bouts of extreme fatigue. I was/am the kind of guy who can go for hours like a toddler with boundless energy. Sometimes, it's like I'm hormonally out of whack and I literally can barely get through the day and I'll crash on the couch at 7pm, which is a bedtime I never had at any point in my life. It gets uncontrollable where it is literally impossible for me to fight it even though I try and I'm just gone daddy gone.

Sleep has been very erratic over the last several months. I take a lot of supplements to try to help wiht my low T-score. It's 400 points from where it should be and that's not good. I would guess a lot of us without our prostates have similar issues.

Thank you for your post and the others as well. This one just happens to fit the picture better. On the occasional night I wake up in a swimming pool, I wonder why I don't wake up before that like I do on most nights. It's very common for me to only sleep a max of 4 hours in any single stretch without waking for the bathroom. Sometimes I can't get back to sleep and will be up from 2 or 3am on.. That also has never been an issue.
Posted Today 10:08 PM (GMT 0)
Glad I hit a possible cause
Posted Today 10:23 PM (GMT 0)

Inchoation said...
... It's very common for me to only sleep a max of 4 hours in any single stretch without waking for the bathroom. Sometimes I can't get back to sleep and will be up from 2 or 3am on.. That also has never been an issue.

I've been having that too, especially since radiation. I wake up probably 2 to 4 times a night to pee, mostly during the first few hours of sleep. After around 4AM I sleep well, but wake up around 7-8AM with a bursting bladder.

Because of the AUS I don't worry about a flood, but the AUS does tend to drip all thru the night and so I sleep with a dry washcloth in my crotch every night to soak up the drops.. otherwise the sensation of wetness wakes me right up.

It's been ages since I've had a good night's sleep.
Posted Today 10:49 PM (GMT 0)

Inchoation said...

You know what. Ding, ding, ding. I've been experiencing random bouts of extreme fatigue. I was/am the kind of guy who can go for hours like a toddler with boundless energy. Sometimes, it's like I'm hormonally out of whack and I literally can barely get through the day and I'll crash on the couch at 7pm, which is a bedtime I never had at any point in my life. It gets uncontrollable where it is literally impossible for me to fight it even though I try and I'm just gone daddy gone.

Sleep has been very erratic over the last several months. I take a lot of supplements to try to help wiht my low T-score. It's 400 points from where it should be and that's not good. I would guess a lot of us without our prostates have similar issues.

Thank you for your post and the others as well. This one just happens to fit the picture better. On the occasional night I wake up in a swimming pool, I wonder why I don't wake up before that like I do on most nights. It's very common for me to only sleep a max of 4 hours in any single stretch without waking for the bathroom. Sometimes I can't get back to sleep and will be up from 2 or 3am on.. That also has never been an issue.

Root cause: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27830446
Posted 12/2/2018 11:19 AM (GMT 0)
I don't see why a sling wouldn't help it squeezes your uretha so it slows down your urine I don't wet the bed I don't leak and night long as I'm up on my feet I have a little leakage I wear a real small Shield compared to regular pads now since I had the sling also I hear that this comes back years after with radiation more than just taking out your prostate my father had radiation seeds and not only does he have trouble with the bathroom his cancer came back to so I think a sling would help if you want to slow your urine down I'm healing fine now before my sling I will come home from a hard day at work sleep deep I wake up to a wet bed otherwise I'm up every hour or every two hours that my bladder still makes me use the bathroom all the time after prostate surgery that haven't changed but the sling work for incontinence
Posted 12/2/2018 3:23 PM (GMT 0)

Inchoation said...
Hello gentleman...

It's been many years since I've posted here and a little jarring to be back in some ways.

My return is based on my inablity to find anything via googling on night time incontinence years down the road.

Everything went about as well as could be expected for me back in 2013 when I had the procedure. No incontinence except for some minor stress incontinence.

Now, over 5 years later if I eat the wrong things too late at night, I'll have major urinary incontinence while sleeping. It's very sporadic. Could be weeks with no issues, and then suddenly a couple of nights during a week, it's a total loss of urinary control at night. I don't understand why? I also feel like I have a UTI sometimes with some accompanying stinging feeling.

Has anyone else dealt with this? I was in much better shape back during the surgery than I am 5 years later. I was a chronic exerciser back then and have become pretty sedentary after going through some things that make prostate cancer look minor in comparision. I'm not sure if some of trauma I've experienced coupled with the sedentary/depressive lifestyle I've chosen is to blame or if there's something else?

Perhaps, I just need to go into boot camp and get back into shape and these random issues at night will stop?

Anyone with any advice or any similar experience would be helpul. Every single time this happens at night, it's very upsetting and a reminder of something not pleasant. Hoping to make this go away "for good" but am horrified that as years go by it'll only worsen.

Thank you, gentleman.

I have had some issues of recent, I have seen my Urologist. After starting Zytiga recently she asked if this was happening when I was possibly constipated, which she was aware had been an issue. She told me it is possible for the bladder to leak if I was constipated. This is probably not the issue for you but I thought I would just throw it out there for others as well. I have cut back on coffee and seldom drink anything after 7 pm.
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