3 Weeks Post RALP

Had a rough couple weeks just being tired, and dealing with abdominal pain and constipation, but it seems I am almost back to normal.

I am pretty close to 100% continent, not wearing a pad at all except at night. One night during the first week my pad wasn't covering my unit, and I did piss the bed and had to wash all the bedding, so I'm still wearing a pad at night out of an abundance of caution.

I think I might have had a mini-erection the other morning but I'm not sure, might have been dreaming it, but somehow I'm confident that's going to come back.

I'm making this post because one of my fears of surgery was the the prospect of incontinence. I wasn't all that concerned about ED, but I was worried about incontinence because I've read posts by others where that was a pretty devastating side effect. I've had no physical therapy, I never did a kegel, and it seems like I'm pretty much back to normal on that front. So for all men considering surgery, I'd like to share that experience. I had complications like EPE and SVI, so my surgery was more involved than others where the cancer was contained, but I still had a good outcome as far as the continence issue. Maybe I was too worried about it because of the stories posted here, but I think people are more likely to post about problems than successes. For all of my PCa brothers out there that suffer from this, I hope you get relief somehow or another.

Anyway, all good. My worst fears did not come true.

Pratoman said...
GMan, thats great, and, you are in the majority, i believe, not the minority, of recovering continence fairly quickly after surgery (although 3 weeks is super quick.
Sounds like you are well on your way to a full recovery, and for that we are thankful.

I think you are right and kinda why I posted this. The majority of men will recover their continence pretty quickly, and if not pretty quickly, in a reasonable amount of time. I believe I had an overblown fear of the actual risk and I'm hoping this post can help reassure others who might have the same fear I did.

Gman, thank you for the strong update. It's good that you're doing so well. Your experience is not all that different from mine. I would suggest that you take care and don't push too hard. You're only 3 weeks out from major surgery--you've got a lot of healing yet to do. I felt really good after three weeks...and found out that I didn't have the energy that I thought I should have...it took several months to really feel good and able to do everything I wanted to do.

So, take it easy....long walks (and naps) are good for you. Keep eating healthy, and build up your strength. The stirrings down below are good too. Has your doc given you a scrip yet for viagra or cialis? They not only help the obvious, but by increasing blood flow in your pelvis, they help overall healing in the area.

I think it makes sense to worry. Even if only a small percentage of RALP patients end up with severe incontinence problems, it is a REALLY big problem if it happens to YOU.