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Another incontinence question. Suggestions welcome

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Posted 5/2/2017 4:59 PM (GMT 0)
Had divinci on 1-10-17. All nerves spared. Have recovered easily except for incontinence and ED ( obviously).

I have made progress in the incontinence I think. I still go through 5-8 pads depending on my activity level but I find that I am dry for most movements except standing up and those first few steps afterwards. Problem is, I am up and down all day due to work.

I have been paying attention and focusing on those times and kegaling but it seems unless I kegal and head right to the bathroom, as soon as I relax the kegal I spurt out a quick shot. A couple of those and my pad is soaked. I can not seem to stop those.

The doc put the scope up the little fella and looked at my follow up last month. Everything looked fine. He had me kegal when he was up there and said that I was doing them right and they looked effective. he had me start doing a new kegal regime of three very hard kegals with me laying down and knees up, sitting up and standing. Do this three times a day. I don't think he has a great feel for the incontinence part of the disease.

I have been very active in last six weeks, walking and officiating lacrosse games 5x a week ( double pad and pray. No real problems though). Modified my diet to more salads and vegtables, no sweets, junk food, fast food, fried food or beer. Lost about 15 lbs ( I am a big guy, 6'4 , was 270 when I went under, good portion in the belly region )

Any suggestions on what worked for you guys with the standing/sitting issue?
Posted 5/2/2017 8:19 PM (GMT 0)
Just a note for you to be aware of. Some of us (read some of the entries just below this thread regarding AUS) have had an implant called the AMS 800 Artificial Urinary Sphincter (AUS). It is a device that looks like a donut over your urethra.

It has a balloon of saline up in your abdomen which fills up the donut and squeezes the urethra close.

The pump to move the saline around is located in the scrotum.

I have had mine around 8 years..

NEO
Posted 5/2/2017 9:06 PM (GMT 0)
It generally gets better with time. Keep doing the exercises and walk as much as you can to strengthen the pelvic muscles. Sounds like you are on a good track. Hang in there.
Posted 5/2/2017 10:22 PM (GMT 0)
I keep hearing doing kegels consistently an time helps. The progress I have seen has been slow but it is progress. Someone posted something about a month ago that included two videos explaining the type of kegels to do in order to strengthen the three muscles involved. I found them to be very helpful and encouraging. Search under incontinence I am sure it will pop up. Good luck.
Posted 5/2/2017 10:45 PM (GMT 0)
Keep doing the kegals. I was a lot worse than you at that stage. It's been 2yrs. 1 month for me. I drive a truck and if I bend to the right to pickup something on the floor I pay the price. I usually wear a pad to work and used to change it at every stop. I now go all day with the pad. Today I forgot to change to a pad and had a shield all day. I'm getting better slowly. You are ahead of me hang in there.
Posted 5/4/2017 12:21 AM (GMT 0)
I did kegels til I was blue in the face. I went thru several months of "physical therapy" which consisted of squeezing a probe in my butt to make sure I was doing them right, then about twenty minutes of TENS type electric shocks going thru the probe (sounds like great fun, I know).

Long and short, it did little to improve my continence. I am dry when I lay down and dry when I sit, and I can hold it as long as I need to when I'm standing or walking. But I am still holding it. As soon as I turn my attention to something else and unclench my kegel muscles, the urine flows. It seems there is an assumption that if you do kegels long enough then you won't have to consciously "hold it" any longer. No one ever explained to me how that is supposed to work.

I am getting the AUS artificial sphincter implanted in about ten days, so that my bladder will be able to hold enough urine that my salvage radiation treatments can commence. I know that my path report said that "proximal to the sphincter" was one of the areas of extraprostatic extension but no one has told me that that is why I am still incontinent after eight months.

I hope you don't end up like me. But in the meantime I have encountered quite a few other guys who needed to have the AUS implant surgery.
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