incontinence

karl, i had surgury may 23 iam still in dipers, i have no control at all. can you elaberate more on the stages you went through from the begening to where your at now.

2375dgg said:

Both of you are probably experiencing the well known "SECRET" of RP. This is the subject that many an urologist will fail to mention to persons having RP, that is the percentage that will have incontinence for the rest of their life. The docs want to cut the cancer out, but fail to tell the patient what can be the result of the treatment. I personally know many men who have had RP and about 40-50% are incontinent. Maybe soneone with a good experience or someone who is in the same situation as you will respond. I had seeds so what I experienced does not apply. Dennis

Hi. I had seeds also, after 45 days radiation. It didn't work. One year later i had Cryo. It got the cancer, but 6 months after that i started having problems, first unable to pee (had catheter 4 times) then problems dripping. Seems to be an increasing problem. Still fighting it & seeing doctors. Any advice?

CharlieG said:

Incontinence
I am aproaching 1 year since my RP. I can tell you that almost everyone's experience with incontinence is different. Your experience sounds a lot like mine in that at the 5 month mark, there is still some problem.

I kept on with the Kegles and I got better and better although it was not linear. Some days/weeks were better and some seemed worse.

Now at 10 months, I am in pretty good shape but still wear a pad just in case. I am pretty much just having "Stress incontinence" when I strain a little or laugh hard, I can leak a little. Golf or heavy lifting might make me wet a little.

The bottom line is that after the prostate is removed, we go from three urinary sphincters to one and we have to build up the one or it leaks terribly. Sometimes the one just won't do it for some folks and that sucks.

I feel very lucky that I am cancer free and all I have to deal with is puttin on a pad in the morning.

Good luck and keep the faith!

Incontinence
Da Vinci 2006 Radiotherapy 2008 Hormone treatment Zoladex till DDUP
Incontinence pisses me off, just the inconvenience, annoyance, and sometimes embarassment.
Impotence with hormone t sucks John

Hi I too had RP about 3
Hi I too had RP about 3 weeks ago,at 1st was going through 4-5 pads a day.Now I'm almost down to 2.What difficult for me to deterine,is it pee or sweat. My "accidents",have come while sleeping.I sleep with 2 thick towels,pad and shorts every nite.I do take showers twice a day,morning and nite.Thats when i change pad. Rarely now i change during the day. I know I have better control while standing,or walking,buy still that urge,and when I go it only might be drips or short squirt.I do catch the "major" ones. Maybe you might want to ask your Dr if you can take Flomax,at nite to slow down the flow. ( good for 24 hrs).The brand diper I use is from Walgreens,"certainity",runs about $20 for 36. Hopefully this help.Be patient. Also I do take a 20 min walk every morning,maybe that helped me bulid up that muscle for control. BUT I will say I do have my bad also.Just thankfull to be a survivor.Good luck and God bless Randall72

I guess I must be at the
I guess I must be at the other extreme. Had RP in May of '09 for stage 2 PCa with capsule penetration in 2 spots. Afterward, I was asked to do kegels 5 times per day with 5 reps each. I was told to add 5 reps a week until I was doing 5 sets of 60 per day. I was using pads during the day and Depends for overnight use for a couple weeks until I noticed that the Depends were still dry about 5 mornings in a row. Then I switched to pads for day and night usage. Three months after surgery, I was down to 1 pad per day from my starting point of 5 per day. Urologist suggested that I might subconsciously be relying on the safety valve of that one pad and that I should try going without. Have not used a pad and have not looked back since. When I see my urologist, one of the questions concerns leakage frequency and amount over the previous 4 weeks. About half the time, I've had no leakage at all. The other half, I've had maybe one or two instances in the previous 4 weeks and then only a few drops each time. I was far from an ideal candidate going into surgery - about 70-80 lbs overweight. I've had no complaints about the surgery or my results since. I absolutely made the right choice for me - including choice of surgeon.

I agree with the statement

I agree with the statement that everyone is different. I have spoken with close to a dozen people that have had surgery. 35 years ago I have been told surgery was brutal. Almost all became incontinent and impotent so most of us are very lucky.

I spoke with staff after surgery and one of my concerns had to deal with how to deal with incontinence. I found a site that broke down the different pads/guards by volume, cost, shape, which encouraged me to write a paper for my doctor to give patients. The head nurse said that she was amazed at how many men came to have their catheter removed and brought no pads/guards. I started with Depends and then found TENA, loved my TENA guards.

http://www.nationalincontinence.com/s/Compare_Guards_for_Men

The other issue was the instructions on how to perform Kegal exercise. I asked "how do I know if I am doing them right." The paper from the hospital was useless in my opinion. I found UK youtube a great help. I learned about pelvic floor, dribble, exercises, most had woman as the target audiance but when you know that men and woman have close to the same urinary system we can use their material.

Although I have almost regained all control I still get depressed if I have a bad day. Exercise, diet, and rest are very important. I watched this video almost every day until I had it right.

David Hughes Pelvic Floor Exercise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=QHwVglPQR_w&NR=1

Wish you luck, Jim

califvader said:

the drips

i had a r/p in sept. of 2003.  i actually went well over a year with no problems of leakage.  i didn't have my first slip until a bought a brand new matteress for my bed.  i kid you not.  since then the only time i need to wear a depends is when i'm sleeping.  if i fall asleep in my lazy boy chair  it can happen there too.  so i put a 36 by 36 bed pad on the chair at all times.  i've learned what i need to do.   i can go for days without having a slip and then bam it happens.

califvader

Just curious, are you still doing kegels?

dagmac74 said:

Incontinence

I had RP in 1995 and have had a degree of incontinence since. In 2003 I had a "V-sling" put in, and that helped for a few years. However, I still have to wear a light-to-moderate control pad (Dignity ThinSerts), and lately they are becoming less effective. Don't know what to do now but will talk with my urologist about it.

I had LRP done in April 2004.

I had LRP done in April 2004. upon biopsy I was rated at a gleason 8 with some involvement outside the prostate. I was incontinent from day one. Since then I have had varying levels of control from light to heavy discharge. But I have always had to wear protection. Most recently I was using as many as three pads a day. I went to my Uroligist about a year ago and after the cystoscopy we found the scar tissue from the surgery was beginning to block the opening from my bladder. After a procedure to relieve this I was only using 1 pad a day, and then a very light flow, until about a month ago i started to experience a little heavier flow. I wanted to get ahead of it this time, so after another cystoscopy and finding there is nothing he can do to clear it any better, we are talking about an artificial Sphinter. Research on this shows that about 80 to 90 percent of those that get this become 100 percent continent. The others experience a great reduction in flow. I am talking about it with my wife and my doctor and will probably make the final decision soon.

I do not like the idea of another surgery but if the outcome is as expected it would be well worth it.

At the most the use of pads has been a bother and if this were the best I could do I could live with it and not be to terribly unhappy. At 65 I am able to stay pretty active and enjoy life. But the thought of not having to take pads everywhere I go is certainly appealling. I do long rides on my motorcycle and either have to pack quite a few pads or stop to replenish along the way. Packing pads along with all of the clothes we need for a three week trip on a bike with my wife along is a challenge.

I find that I am just happy to be alive and capable of doing the things I love. It has been a long journey and there have been, and will be, bumps in the road, but overall my intentions are  to not dwell on the negatives but find the positives and live my life to the fullest.

Good luck to all of you.

Welcome to the brotherhood of the walnut.