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Hi Karitoki,

Welcome to the board.  You will find lots of fantastic people here who will make every attempt to answer any PCa-related questions or concerns that you may have.  In my opinion, your surgery is very recent in terms of regaining urinary continence, so I would not panic yet.  I assume that you are performing Kegel exercises to strengthen your sphincter muscle, as every PCA patient gets that recommendation.  I would recommend that you perform those exercises with a very robust passion, and very often, and for the indefinite future.  If you are going to regain urinary continence, a strong sphincter muscle is an absolute must.

Regaining urinary continence is often a slow process, taking up to a year+.  Everybody's experience can be different, though, so some folks regain urinary continence in as little time as a few months, and some, like me, never do.  Where you had complications in the urethra area, there is a chance that this will lengthen the time required for you to regain urinary continence, but maybe not, depending how close the complications were to the sphincter muscle.

Also, did you have any of the nerve clusters on either side of the prostate removed during the surgery?  From what you described regarding margins and no PCa found outside of the prostate, I suspect that the nerve clusters were not removed and remain intact, and that is good news for the odds of regaining urinary continence and future sexual activity.

My recommendation for now, based upon your 8-10 pads per day of leakage, buy yourself a box of men's Depends underwear.  You can buy a box of 42 at Walmart for under $20.  I know that there is a stigma to wearing Depends, as I was stigmatized for a while, but you will get over it and have the peace of mind that you won't be leaking through your clothes and onto furniture, or running to the restroom to change pads, at the most inconvenient times.

If, it turns out that you do not regain urinary continence in a year's time, then you may be considered to be permanently incontinent, but there are also options for dealing with that and maintaining a 'normal' lifestyle.  I can refer you to sets of comprehensive postings that I made here in the forum on that topic and my experiences, IF that becomes necessary.  While none of us here in the forum are medical professionals, my lay opinion is that it is way too early to be thinking about permanent incontinence, and that you have a very good chance of regaining urinary continence in time.  You just need to be patient and perform your Kegel exercises very thoroughly and consistently.

Again, welcome to the forum, and ask any questions that you may have.  I'm sure that other folks will also comment in your posting and offer you their experiences and perspective.

I wish you good luck on your journey.

hi anyone else have a shrinkage of their manhood after tratment? my adiation ended 3 months ago..was hoping for a bit of back to normalas size does matter when urinating,you hafto get outside the pants or there is no use finding a bathroom.any help is welcomed

karitoki said:

Thank you so much for your

Thank you so much for your encouraging reply! I won't be able to tell my wife about your response because she has been telling me basically the same thing! I won't hear the end of it!

The doctor did not mention having to remove any nerve bundles. I never thought of asking him, and I would hope he would have told me if he had removed anything that signifigant. I'll ask him during our next visit.

How long do the Depends underwear last between changes? Unless they are good for eight hours of use, I'd be in a bad situation having to change one during the work day.

I had to chuckle about the klegel advice; I started doing them a lot last week; Monday, I couldn't pee my urethra was so swollen! I had do catheterize myself. I stopped the klegels and iced the area and things returned to normal the next day. That said, I'm back at it doing them multiple times a day.

 

Again, thanks for the support.

Rick

I suggest that you ask your doctor for a prescription for physical therapy. Many times kegels are not done correctly, so the need for professional Direction.

I was given a 6 month shot of Lupron ( which lasted 12 months!) by VA, the side effects were horrible!.  My PSA was 7.8.  I then went to U of Miami and had every test known done with no sign of cancer anywhere.  I have been off Lupron for a year and my prostate cance has returned with vengance...PSA 62 and it has spread .  My NEW oncologist has given me a 3 month shot  and I feel "bad" but no where as "bad as I did with 6 ( or 12)  month shot.  Is it possible that the 6 month shot wad a worse side effect on me than the 3 month shot...why not just get a 1 month shot every month???  The VA gave me the shot in the arm and the Oncologist at Cleveland clinic gave me the shot in butt...could that mean anything?  Hoping someone might have some info that would help!