aghaken said...
I had my operaton on March 10th, and I'm still using five pads a day. (!) Basically I have no continence when standing or walking. Siting and sleeping I've made good progress, but the stress incontinence is taking a long time to resolve. I saw my surgeon, Dr. Samadi, a couple of weeks ago and he was a little surprised that it was taking so long. (I have to confess, I was not very disciplned about doing the Kegels. And I had not been managing my fluid intake, either.) I told him I was walking, and playing golf, carrying my bag, and he told me to take it easy. He recommended I go for biofeedback, which I have an appointment for next week. When there I'm also going to ask about magnet therapy, which sounds goofy enough to appeal to me. I'll let you know how that works out.
Anyway, I've been doing a lot of Kegels these past weeks and I do notice more control, but at the end of the day, there are still five pads.
DennisFlorida said...
Hello Everone - I had Davinci 6/15. The post op PSA came out to zero - praise God! But, I still have to wear a single pad each day. The leakage is minimal, but it is still there. A few dribbles after unrinating, a few drops while passing gas etc. In September, my doc told me that the kegals were not giong to help and to just wait and it will get better. Well, I am now having doubts about his recommendation. He is one of the premier Davinci Surgeons working at the Cleveland Clinic, so you would think he would know - right? What do you all think re: kegals or other alternative methods to get dry?
Blessings,
Dennis
Dennis, as you see, as far as the averages go you are- as far as can be known at this point- doing fantastic. 1 month out and a few dribbles and drops? I have "A few dribbles after urinating, a few drops while passing gas etc" 16 months later but I consider it a spectacular improvement compared to 3 or even 6 months out, like night and day. Many days I barely notice that I still have a slight problem. But maybe that is because I got to really soak a pad one or more a day for the 1st several months, at least if I was standing or walking? Compared to that, even if it gives me a few drops I fart in the general direction of those minor drips and drops.
In defense of your Doc who told you not to bother with the Kegels and that you just had to heal with time, I'm not so certain he does not have a point. I was very consistent about
the kegels for many months, and even had
the electro-stim/bio-feedback therapy. I am undecided how much any of it helped. I rarely do Kegels anymore, and I certainly don't seem to do any worse when I don't. On my recent beach vacation, I had a really complete Kegel work out one night while sitting in the condo. The next morning during a walk on the beach with no pad (I can't remember if I stuffed a paper towel down there as I often do before walks) came awfully close to truly wetting myself enough to show through. A few drops actually did, but I was camouflaged by some ocean spray. When I finally got back to a bathroom, my under wear was soaked in the front, the worst they had ever been. Of course one dif is I was wearing no pad as I did months ago, which hid accidents like that. Then again, these days I usually get away with no pad, even while walking and working in the yard, which makes me wonder about
those Kegels I did the night before? Who knows.
But let me add this still in defense of your doc: one of my URO told me this: "sometimes you just have to heal, and sometimes it takes quite a while". I already knew one reason could be when you had a very large prostate like I did, 106 gms. They told me that those usually take a lot longer to get continent, but in the end the overall success rate was about
the same just slower. I felt better knowing that. But then I was told this: when they make the anastomosis(suture the urethra back together), you are normally in a steep Trendelenburg (head down) position. They know this anastomosis will drop down once you stand up with a full bladder- possibly into the sphincter muscle- so they try to make it closer to the bladder than the sphincter. Despite this, with some of us end up with the anastomosis sinking right down into the sphincter. And during the first few months of healing, that scar tissue can become quite hard and take months to resolve, just like a scar on your abdomen or other body part. Even a very strong sphincter muscle will not be able to compress that scar tissue enough, at least not without full on Kegeling. And of course, most of us can only Kegel for so long until the muscle gets exhausted, and then it's game over for the day. The only thing that will help that condition is full healing of that scar tissue, which could easily take months.
But, I am just presenting all of that for your general consideration. I think anyone with just a few dribbles at < 1 month has nothing to bother worrying about
. You are not in bad condition right now compared to many(most?) post RPs, and you are bound to improve some later on. So just hang in there, Bro!
EDIT: BTW, it is my gut feeling that walking, especially up and down steep hills in the woods, helped me more than anything else. Can't prove it, that is just my impression.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 7/13/2015 12:44:47 PM (GMT-6)