preparing for continence recovery

Lots of good advise above - weight, diet, kegels. Check, but i don't think you are supposed to re-start kegels until catheter is out. (Yes - do them before surgery!)

My surgeon had to do a lot of bladder connection rebuild due to the size of my prostate, so my catheter was in for several weeks. That made my muscles and control much weaker.

Keys for me - accept that i had no control, that it was going to take awhile, and focus on week-to-week improvements, not day to day. Keep drinking fluids, even thought you may not be able to control their exit. I went from diapers to big pads to little pads, and then suddenly, i didn't need anything.

Mentally, it helped to realize that except for my wife, no one had a clue what i was wearing underneath. This helped me to adjust to getting back to a normal routine and not be stressing about control. I found a clean, private restroom at work and carried spares in my backpack. Find ways to make the situation work.

Subdenis: This seems to be a crap shoot. Yes, I would do all the exercises & walk. There was one guy in my company who had surgery before me, used half a bag of pads, and gave me the rest. He was dry. A VP in my company, and myself, had very different experiences - battling incontinence for 3-6 months or more. I STILL wear one pad a day.

Why surgery over radiation? At the time, I was told that I was so young they wanted to be sure they got it all. And the general impression I was given concerning ED was that with surgery, you may lose it for a while, but it will come back (mine did, still use Viagra); while with radiation, you come out just fine, but a large percentage of guys start to lose it over time, and it does not come back.

That's the info that drove my decision. All the best,

kcragman