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Catheterised for 49 days - will I regain continence after catheter removal?

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Posted 2/28/2012 8:06 PM (GMT 0)
My husband, catheterised for 35 days and another 2 weeks to go before the next cystogram, is worried that he will not regain continence once the catheter comes out. Does anyone have any good or bad stories of having been catheterised for a lengthy period and getting bladder control back?

I know he will have continence issues for a while - but as long as there is a light at the end of the tunnel he will stay focussed.

We have cancelled our holiday in China at the end of March though! That's now too ambitious!

.. and Whitebird - you have already given me hope!

Age 46
PSA c 3 for 2 years
PSA 6.3 in September 2012
Biopsy 2/11/12 12 cores
Pre-op Gleason 8 (3+5) 4 present left and right
Post-op Gleason 6
Radical Prostatectomy 24/1/12 robot asst camera
Catheter out 30/1/12 followed by bladder neck tear and recatheterisation
Catheter in for 35 days with 2 more weeks to go until next cystogram
T2 - confined to prostate
3mm positive margin
Nerve bundles spared

Post Edited (janem123) : 2/28/2012 1:25:06 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/28/2012 8:27 PM (GMT 0)
Regaining continence is both very individual and somewhat subjective.

A lot of uros will tell you that one pad a day is "continent", while we all look for "Leak Free, Pad Free".

It took me 5 months to get down from eight+ pads to one pad a day, then I did RT, so messed that all up, and over time it is slowly getting worse. One of my support group friends was dry the first day and stayed that way. You don't know what you're going to get until you have it.

At two months out of surgery it was a major challenge to make a five hour car trip (took eight hours with extra stops), and I probably should not have tried it. I suspect that your China trip was too ambitious from day one, but some folks dry up quickly.

Posted 2/28/2012 8:38 PM (GMT 0)
While a couple of folks here are in the unfortunate outlier category (and a few are also in the fortunate outlier category) most seem to be 6 months or so, and nearly all are dry within a year. If he happens to be in the unlucky few (and there's no way to predict that on an individual basis, but the percentage is quite low) there are further procedures than can address it if time does not take care of it. But time usually does take care of it.
Posted 2/28/2012 8:51 PM (GMT 0)
My cath was in for five weeks... It took me about three months to be PAD FREE.

Read up on doing Kegals.

Posted 2/28/2012 8:55 PM (GMT 0)
My original catheter was in for 63 days. When free at last, I was completely dry in way less than a month. Good thing about having in the cath in so long, it allows lots of extra time for the delicate bladder neck to urethra healing to take place.

david
Posted 2/29/2012 12:57 AM (GMT 0)

RALP December 2011--we had a trip planned to Europe in February that we made last summer before my DX.  We cancelled the trip in early January as i did not want to chance still leaking a lot on the trip.  I am glad we cancelled as in my opinion you will want to be near home or take short trips for a while unless you are extremely lucky and are one of the small percentage that are mostly dry quickly.

I would have had to lug around a suitcase just for pads!  Even though each day I have improvement and am mostly dry at night it is a challenge in the daytime in moving around and doing our daily walks.  I go through 3-4 pads a day.  I guess I could go longer between changes  but I don't like the wet feeling.

If I were you I would cancel the trip and just enjoy some local trips, do some walking and enjoy where you live.  I find that after surgery I am quite happy doing less stressful things. 

Posted 2/29/2012 4:15 AM (GMT 0)
Not sure where you're flying from, but even from Hawaii China is a pretty long trip. And even if you have an aisle seat, sometimes with turbulence they don't want you to get up. I think my first plane flight was about 3 months after surgery, and 3.5 hours. I was quite happy I managed to sit the whole way.

But you should definitely go eventually! China has lots of wonderful sights to see.
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